


Spellswitched

by Diana1969, KarkatTheDalek



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Amanda O'Neill Swears a Lot, Bodyswap, Confusion, Experimenting with Unique Character Dynamics, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Going Free Real Restate on Backstory Here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2020-06-26 07:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19763002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diana1969/pseuds/Diana1969, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarkatTheDalek/pseuds/KarkatTheDalek
Summary: One wrong spell goes off late at night and, to their horror, Akko and friends find themselves misplaced in each others' bodies! Unable to fix this, and with Ursula otherwise preoccupied, the girls must brave the next few days pretending to be each other. Can they manage it without looking like complete idiots? And even more than that...what will they learn about each other in the process?





	1. Swapping in the Moonlight

Sucy Manbavaran had few expectations when waking up on a Sunday morning. The weekends were usually a time where she could forgo any sleep schedule and do as she pleased, performing whatever experiments she felt like (or that her roommates would let her). She expected this Sunday to be like any other - she would wake up before Akko and Lotte, start toiling by her desk, write down numerous potion-related factoids, break for lunch, more potions stuff, chat with Akko and Lotte _if she absolutely had to_ , and then bed.

This would not be a typical Sunday for Sucy Manbavaran. Or for anyone, really.

The first thing she that noticed was wrong was that she wasn’t in her bed. She looked up and saw Lotte’s bunk directly above her, the Finnish girl still sound asleep, snoring lightly. Sucy’s eyes, still shaking off drowsiness, went wide once the confusion set in.

_…how did I get here?_

She slowly rose up, a hand going behind her head as she tried piecing together the other night.

 _Let’s see…potions…lunch with_ _Akko and Lotte_ _…dinner too…potions…wait, what was the one I made last night? More importantly, what’s wrong with my hand? And why do I feel…warm?_

Sucy looked at her hand. There was a pinkish, soft color to it, not the cold gray that people tended to associate with her. With her other hand, she yanked a strand of hair out from her head. It wasn’t her typical lavender, it was...brown.

_…Oh no._

She quickly tore the covers off the bed. The pajamas she was wearing looked awfully familiar to her, and not because they were hers. They were a pair of shorts barely reaching to her knees, and a white t-shirt. A horrifying realization sunk in.

_…I’m in Akko’s body._

Forcefully, she yanked her new body up. She looked at her arms… _Akko’s_ arms, rather…and stared, fuming. She felt nothing but disgust and anger. Akko was, she was loath to admit, her friend, yes, but never in a million years would she have wanted to be caught dead looking like her. Much less would she have wanted to be trapped in Akko’s body. This only left her with more questions, though. Where was Akko was one, but more importantly…who was that in Sucy’s body?

Sucy walked over to her _actual_ bed, looking over at her body. It was resting on its side, a delicate hand behind the pilow...and it was _smiling_. Disgusting. She put her ear close to it and heard some breathing.

_Someone’s in there…_

She wondered for a moment if, since she was in Akko’s body, that meant Akko had swapped the two of them...but no, that didn’t make sense. Akko would never be able to pull off a spell like this, and she had gone to bed before Sucy had - she never would have had the time to screw it up. Not to mention, whoever was in there didn’t sleep like a total mess. Still, that didn’t necessarily rule out someone else swapping them…

Well, either way, if she was going to be tortured by being in Akko’s body, it was only fair that she get to torture whoever was in hers.

She continued listening to its occupant mumble sweet-nothings as she slowly bent over. She grabbed the pillow from under her doppelganger’s head, and quickly pulled it out. Such a slight motion might have been enough to startle the stranger awake, but for good measure, she decided to give them a quick whack on the face. At times like this, revenge was all too necessary.

“GAH! God, Babs, I’m awake, I’m awake already! You don’t have to--A-Akko? W-Where am I? Oh my god, you kidnapped me, didn’t you?”

Sucy felt a tinge of embarrassment. Her cheeks… _Akko’s_ cheeks…were blushing bright red. It wasn’t every day she heard her voice coming out of someone else, but it was especially weird when it was her voice doing a ridiculously perfect British accent. But wait…Babs?

“...Hannah, I presume?” Sucy asked, pausing as she heard herself speak. Akko’s voice, mixed with Sucy’s inflictions, had lost its signature cutesy squeak, replaced now with a dry, tired grumble. Like everything else, Sucy hated it.

“O-Of course I’m Hannah!” the Brit replied, before pausing. She was slowly getting her bearings, a growing sense that something was wrong creeping up her spine. “A-Akko, what ha-”

“First of all,” Sucy interrupted, a feeling of nausea sweeping her stomach at the thought of Hannah fucking England being in possession of her body, “I’m not Akko. I’m Sucy. Looks like there’s been a body switch of some kind.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked. “A-And why do I feel cold?”

“Because you’re in my body, England, and I'm naturally a cold-blooded girl.”

Hannah gulped, hopping out of Sucy’s bed. She felt up the night gown she was wearing…yep, definitely Sucy’s. She looked at her hands. Pale, almost ghostly. She felt her skin itch and tingle from the length of her bangs. She wanted to scream. As much as she’d grown to tolerate Akko, and as much as Barbara grew fond of Lotte, she would _not_ stand for being in Creepy Sucy’s body. Before she could do anything, though, Sucy covered her mouth, making a “Shh!” noise.

“As horrifying as this is for the both of us, I wouldn’t recommend screaming.”

“Well, what _do_ you recommend?” Hannah hissed. Sucy rolled her eyes at how Hannah could mangle her voice without even trying, the posh tone mixing with Sucy’s deeper timbre to make something alien to the Filipina.

“First, we should see who’s in Lotte’s body, and _then_ we figure out where Akko is and whose body she’s in. Oh, and I guess we’d need to find whoever’s in your body now.”

“D-Don’t say that like it’s not a priority!” Hannah angrily protested. “And why would Lotte have swapped bodies with someone?”

“Well, I’m in Akko’s body, and you’re in mine, so it’s not like it’s a clean exchange. And if it got two people in this room, I’d bet it got the third too. Let’s face it, when you’re at this school, you should always expect the worst possible outcome. Murphy’s Law: Luna Nova Edition.”

Hannah sighed. Sucy’s logic checked out.

“You’re not wrong, Manbavaran, but what even _happened_ to cause this?”

Sucy pinched the bridge of her nose and let out an exhausted sigh. “If I knew, I’d be halfway to undoing it by now. I don’t exactly _like_ you being in my body, y’know.”

“Well, it’s not exactly a fun experience for _me_ either,” Hannah huffed, crossing her arms and pouting. Sucy felt the urge to gag all over again just looking at that expression.

Slowly, Lotte seemed to turn in bed. Hannah and Sucy’s attention both turned to her.

“Do we wake her up?” Hannah asked.

“Don’t see why you’d be hesitant about it,” Sucy said, walking over to the bunk. “You’re the one who was screaming the past five minutes.”

“I have _not_!” Hannah hissed. She covered her mouth as she saw Lotte’s body stirring once again. The Finnish redhead…or rather, whoever was in her body, slowly woke up, looking around the room.

“When did everything get so high up?” she said, yet another English accent slipping out. “And…w-why can’t I see?? H-Hannah, are you there?”

Hannah sighed. Despite being mixed with Lotte’s higher pitch, she recognized that timbre. That nervous but calculated manner of delivery.

“Barbara… it’s…a story we’re still piecing together…” Hannah said, exasperated.

"S-Sucy? You kidnapped me, didn't you? I knew this was inevitable!"

Sucy rolled her eyes. “Are you s-”

"Babs, I'm not Sucy! It's me, Hannah!"

Barbara blinked her eyes. It sounded too emotional to be Sucy, but it also sounded too deep and groggy to be Hannah.

"W-Wh…"

The _actual_ Sucy climbed up the bunk’s ladder. She looked at the Night Fall novel right next to Barbara, and handed her a pair of glasses lying on top.

“Gonna give you the short version, Parker,” Sucy began, “we’ve had a magic body switcheroo, you’re in Lotte’s body, Hannah is in mine, and I, that’s me, Sucy, I am in Akko’s. No, we don’t know where Lotte or Akko are, but whatever happened definitely got them, and probably got Diana too. You caught up?”

Barbara gulped at Sucy's quick-paced and blunt rundown, placing the round glasses over her face. She was no stranger to wearing sunglasses, but actual prescription glasses tickled at her nose. She was going to have to get used to this quickly. She slowly made her way down, looking at her… _Lotte’s_ pajamas.

 _Huh..._ _she has nice taste…_

Sucy then took the time to lay out everything that had happened, in her typical blunt fashion.

“Yeah…alright, I-I think I’m caught up…” said Barbara.

“You’re taking this better than I expected,” Hannah noted. “I’m freaking out over here!”

“Well…” Barbara said, a blush growing on her face, “I-I suppose being in Lotte’s body isn’t the _worst_ thing? Though, I guess you got the short end of the stick, Han.”

“Don’t push it…” Hannah muttered.

Sucy rolled her eyes. Of all the students at Luna Nova, she did _not_ feel like having to work with two snobs like Hannah England and Barbara Parker.

“If you two are done making fun of my body,” Sucy grumbled, “we have a few things to do.”

“Right, right,” Hannah said, nodding. The long bangs she now sported brushed against her eye, making her shudder anxiously. “I suppose the first course of action would be that we go to our dorm, right?”

“Do we have the key to get in?” Barbara asked.

“Akko has a spare,” Sucy said. “I can just dig it up and we can--”

Suddenly, a furious knock came from the door. Barbara let out a yelp as the trio heard a familiar voice coming from the other side.

“SUCY SUCY OPEN UP IT’S ME AKKO I’M IN AMANDA’S BODY PLEEEEAAAASE LET US INNNNNN!!!”

Sucy’s eyes went wide.

“...oh my god, she’s in my girlfriend’s body. I’m gonna puke,” Hannah grumbled.

“Could you at least get the bloody door, Han?” Barbara huffed.

Hannah sighed, and went to open the door, and Akko--well, Akko in Amanda’s body--flopped right in front of her, whimpering on the floor. Behind her stood Constanze and Jasminka, or whoever was in their respective bodies. Constanze seemed to be hiding behind both of them, not budging.

“…w-which one is Sucy?” came a wispy voiced Jasminka, knees buckled and body shaking. That sounded like Lotte, all right.

Sucy raised her hand, walking over to Lotte. “So, Lotte, you’re in Jasna’s body?”

Lotte nodded. “Y-Yeah…”

“How ya takin’ it?”

“I-I broke Green Team’s door on the way out…”

“You _what_?”

“J-Jasminka is really strong, okay? I-I don’t know how to handle it like she does, I-I’m used to being scrawny!”

Sucy couldn’t help but feel amused at the mental image of small, nervous Lotte breaking someone’s door. She got on her knees and helped Akko to her feet, shaking her head at the poor girl.

Akko blushed a bit, feeling rather embarrassed. Admittedly, the face of Amanda O'Neill looking all dopey and cute was an odd look. But then, so was Akko looking at her own face and seeing a tired, disapproving grimace.

"I…i-it’s so weird seeing you in my body, Sucy…” she noted with a giggle.

“Every waking moment I’m in it makes me crave death more and more,” Sucy dryly replied.

“Heh…sounds super weird _hearing_ that coming from my body too…”

Sucy rolled her eyes. “I’m just glad you’re okay, dummy. You too, Lotte.”

“Aww, thanks!” Akko said, grabbing her two friends in for a hug. Both of them seemed to have decidedly mixed feelings about getting hugged at this point. Sucy couldn’t help noticing that there was something plain off-putting about Akko's bouncy voice sounded deeper, rougher, and more American.

Slowly, whoever was in Constanze’s body walked into the room with a stiff but respectful gait, silently ignoring the reunion of the Red Team. Her eyes were pointed at the ground, refusing to make eye contact. Each step she took was measured and calculated, like they had been rehearsed for years and years. She tossed her hair around and tilted her head up, turning her gaze to Hannah and Barbara. There was only one person they knew who had that kind of walk.

“D-Diana?” they both asked.

Diana took in a deep breath through her nose, a bright blush growing on her cheeks.

“Don’t…laugh…”

Their eyes both went wide. Constanze had only talked once to their recollection, when Akko first managed to fly. But even then, Diana’s accent coming out of such a high pitched voice…or hell, Diana being in a _much_ shorter girl’s body…well, Hannah couldn’t help but chortle a bit. Only a bit, though. She covered her mouth as soon as she did.

“Hannah, she said don’t laugh!” Barbara glared.

“S-Sorry! D-Diana, I didn’t mean it!”

Diana groaned, frustratedly placing her hand on her forehead. She tilted her head back down, sighing pitifully.

“This is beyond humiliating…”

“Diana, it’ll be okay!” Akko said, walking over to her girlfriend. She got on her knees and put her hand on Diana’s shoulder. “We’ll get this sorted out soon!”

Diana sighed. Even hearing Akko’s upbeat tone coming out like Amanda’s, it still felt oddly reassuring.

“I hope you’re right, Akko. This is…this is far too much for me to wake up to.”

“Alright, Diana,” said Barbara. “Who do you think is behind this?”

Diana closed her eyes and began to think.

“Well...when you consider who’s here and who _isn’t_...I’d say that our prime suspect is…”

* * *

“ _AMAAAANDAAAAA_!”

Amanda O’Neill opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room, as a high, angry voice jolted her awake.

“FUCK! Fucking goddamn, it’s Sunday morning, let a girl sl--oh my God.”

Constanze was on top of her bed, staring Amanda right in the face. It had been her voice that had woken her up, but something seemed...different…

Next to her, most of her other friends were piled in, all shooting the same frustrated glares. Except for…another Amanda, to the right of the bed. She was covering her mouth nervously, a bit intimidated by Constanze’s rage.

“Please tell me this is a dream…” Amanda mumbled. She looked at her arms, noticing the fancy pajamas she was now wearing. “Is this the one where I live in a library? Gross.”

“It’s a nightmare, yes, but it’s no dream, dear,” Sucy (or who Amanda _thought_ was Sucy) snarked. Behind her, two other figures walked into the room, inside Hannah and Barbara’s bodies.

“A-Amanda, I’m so sorry!” whimpered Hannah...no, that sounded like...Jasminka? “I tried to stop them but, y’know, heh, b-being in this body takes a lot of getting used to…”

Barbara--or rather, Constanze--simply grimaced, her arms crossed and her expression angry. _Very_ angry. The _actual_ Barbara took a few cautious steps away from Constanze, for her own well-being.

She slowly sat upright in the bed, studying the sheets. Fancy, smooth, nothing like the ones in her own dorm. She looked at her hands, noting how pale and refined they were. Dainty, well manicured, prim. She glanced over at the...other her, who was currently staring in awe at not-Constanze’s outburst of rage. Amanda couldn’t describe the feeling of seeing her own face looking so goofy, but that would have to wait.

“...Jasminka, what the fuck happened with the spell last night?”

Before Jasminka could answer, not-Constanze grabbed Amanda by her shirt, pulling her directly into her face.

“ _You_ talk first. Every detail. _Now_.”

_Ah, so it’s Diana._

Amanda rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine, fine. Me and Jasna were tryna figure out a body swap spell. Just for the two of us, it was only gonna be for a little… _thing_ we were gonna do.”

“What _kind_ of thing?” Hannah asked, getting closer to Amanda.

“A…um… _project_ kind of thing.”

“You were gonna steal something again, weren’t you?” Hannah smirked.

Amanda nervously coughed, cutting away from the (completely true) accusation. She could feel that Hannah England Brand snark coming a mile away, and she did not want to be in its crosshairs right now.

“ _Anyway,_ we were up until two in the morning just tryna get this shit done, but nothing we did was working. As it turns out, transformation magic is a hell of a lot easier than actually swapping bodies. And uh…I think I passed out at the end? That part’s kind of a blur…”

Jasminka nervously walked up, her hands clutched against her chest. “I-I remember you yelled the name of the spell one last time, and you looked like you were about to throw your wand at the wall…maybe you went too hard with it at the end?”

Amanda looked oddly at Jasminka. The most bizarre thing about this to her was not Jasminka’s motions and voice being filtered through Hannah’s body. It was that Jasminka was in _Amanda’s girlfriend’s body_. “I-I mean, _maybe_? I sure as hell didn’t wanna end up in Cavendish’s body!”

Diana growled. “Well, I certainly didn’t want to wake up looking like this, but it doesn’t seem like either of us are getting what we want, does it?”

“Hey, don’t you _dare_ talk like that about Constanze!” retorted Amanda, offended. “She’s super self-conscious about her looks!” Indeed, Jasminka and Lotte were holding Constanze back from pouncing on Diana for that remark.

“I don't mean any disrespect to Constanze, but I hardly want to go walking around for the rest of the school year like this!” Diana continued. “So help me, O’Neill, you _will_ fix this!”

“Hell if I even know how!” Amanda retorted. “You can’t just make me do shit I don’t know anything about!”

“Girls, girls, calm down!” Akko whimpered, trying to get in the middle of her two friends. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in, and trust me, I’m freaking out just as much as the rest of you…well okay, maybe not _as_ much but…look, the point is, fighting over this isn’t gonna get us anywhere! Let’s get along long enough to fix this, who’s with me?”

Amanda knew that upbeat tone anywhere. It was as persuasive here as it was in any other situation.

“Akko Kagari, inside of my own body?” she smirked, giving a playful chuckle. At least she’d have some fun with this, however long it lasted. “Alright, alright, I’ll help y’all out. Just don’t kill me, alright Cavendish?”

Diana sighed, backing down. “I suppose that sounds like a fair arrangement, O’Neill.”

Amanda swung herself off the bed, giving a little twirl as she landed. She placed her hand in front of her mouth and coughed.

“So, uh, mind telling me who’s who here?”

“I think _I_ can be of some assistance here,” Hannah interjected. She picked up a pen and a pad of paper from Diana’s desk and began to jot something down.

“For everyone’s convenience,” she said, handing the notepad to Amanda. Amanda quickly scanned it:

_Diana - Constanze’s Body_

_Akko - Amanda’s Body_

_Sucy - Akko’s Body_

_Constanze - Barbara’s Body_

_Lotte - Jasminka’s Body_

_Barbara - Lotte’s Body_

_Jasminka - Hannah’s Body_

_Hannah - Sucy’s Body_

_Amanda - Diana’s Body_

“Alright, I think I’ve got it now,” Amanda said, looking at her hands again. “Though this might take a bit to get used to…”

She felt a smirk returning to her face as she looked at Diana. The Cavendish girl scowled, apparently picking up on Amanda’s cheekiness again.

“O’Neill, what are you planning?” she asked bluntly.

Suddenly, Amanda stiffened her posture, her legs pushed together. Her left arm went behind her back, while her right arm moved in front of her face, her hand turned about ninety degrees. She fixed a stern expression on her face, wrinkling her nose and stiffening her jawline.

“Well then, me girlies, we ‘aven’t a moment t’lose, now do we?” she suddenly said, slipping into a downright repulsive English accent (something part of the way between Liverpool, Birmingham, and Yorkshire, with a trip round the bend to Cornwall and back), “Let us not dilly-dally on fixing our current condition, yeh? Jolly good an’ all that? Bloody ‘ell, me girlies, yo-ho!” She burst out laughing as Diana pinched the bridge of her nose.

 _This had better be over in the next few hours,_ she thought. _Otherwise, someone’s going to have to inform her next of kin..._

* * *

“We’ve been at this for three hours and we haven’t gotten _anywhere_ near figuring this out!” Akko whined, sitting against Amanda’s wall. They had retreated into Amanda’s room to fetch her spellbook (and because Amanda really could not stand being in Diana’s room for too long), and Amanda had been throwing the spell’s name around to no avail.

“It’s only been a few minutes, dummy,” mumbled Sucy.

“Well it _feels_ longer!” Akko countered. “Shouldn’t this be a lot easier to do?”

“Soul transference is a _very_ advanced brand of magic,” Lotte explained. “The energy necessary to even transfer one person’s soul into another body requires enormous resolve.”

“And yet Amanda managed to do it in one night,” mumbled Hannah.

“I don’t even know how I did it!” Amanda sighed, twirling her wand around. “Maybe if I get pissed off like last time, I could do it again?"

"Suppose it's worth a shot," Hannah replied.

"Alright alright, uh...Hannah, say something that’ll make me mad!”

Hannah chuckled. Finally, something _fun_.

“American football is the worst sport to ever grace the planet."

Amanda shot Hannah a wounded look, fist clenched. "How _dare_ you. Keep at it!"

Hannah thought some more. "Spelling color without a 'u' should be punishable by law."

“Fucking perfect!” shouted Amanda, banging her fist against the wall. “Keep going!”

“AC/DC songs all sound like the same bollocks. The Americans never should’ve been granted their independence. Hot dogs are disgusting. Country music is an affront to good taste.”

Amanda was digging her hands into her arms, almost clawing at them as she felt her face start to turn red.

“O’Neill, please stop scratching my arms like that,” Diana dryly said, unamused.

“GOD!” shouted Amanda suddenly. “I THINK IT’S WORKING. CAVENDISH, YOU REALLY BRING IT OUT, THROW ME ANOTHER!”

Diana’s eyes narrowed.

“...You actually look rubbish in a suit.”

“HRAAAAAAAAGH!” screamed Amanda, raising her wand high above her head. “NEURALIS PEREGRINUS!”

The room exploded with light, blinding everyone. After about ten seconds or so, the light faded, and everyone opened their eyes.

Amanda stood in the center of the room, with Diana’s long blonde hair sticking straight up. Her face was covered in soot, and her eyes were bugged out hysterically.

“Okay…” she said with a cough. “That...that wasn’t it…”

And with that, she promptly collapsed in a heap.

Everyone in the room groaned with exasperation.

“Diana, have you ever done this spell before?” Barbara asked. “Maybe you could fix Amanda’s little cock-up here.”

Diana shook her head. “Despite my talents, soul transference is its own beast altogether. Curious as I was, I never felt comfortable with learning it.”

Hannah put her hand to her chin in thought. “Jasminka, might I see the spellbook you two used?”

Jasminka was already rifling through a bag of chips, nervously cramming several into her mouth. “Hmm? Oh, one second,” she said, her mouth full of food. Hannah couldn’t help but notice that the Russian girl was eating a bit more than usual. Anxiety, likely.

 _Wish she wouldn’t when she’s in_ my _body, though_ , she thought bitterly.

“It’s a little thing I picked up at the magic shop,” Jasminka said, opening it up for Hannah. “I had asked the man at the store for something, this was what he’d recommended.”

Hannah took a look at the page Jasminka showed her. It was obvious that the book was old, its pages yellow and worn--it might have been an old edition someone had sold to the magic shop’s proprietor. She saw the name of the spell, _Neuralis Peregrinus_. The text was accompanied by a diagram of two witches, with two arrows pointing at their heads. Hannah started reading the page before something caught her eye.

“Jasminka…this says using it on more than five people might…lock them in their new bodies permanently…”

“WHAT??!” everyone else suddenly shouted. Without warning, Constanze grabbed Amanda off the floor, her eyes almost bloodshot as Barbara and Jasminka jumped to separate the two.

“Conz, fuck, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know this would happen!” Amanda yelled, feeling Constanze’s hands trying to claw at her.

“Why didn’t you read the warning, Amanda?” asked Akko.

“Look, I dunno, okay?! I usually don’t read that shit! Conz, stop, I’m sorry!”

Jasminka pulled Constanze away, nervously setting her on a bed. Constanze was clearly panicking--her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were red, her hands were shaking and her legs were twitching and trying to reach for something to yank. Everything about this body felt _wrong_ to her. Her height felt wrong, her hair felt wrong, her skin felt wrong. Slowly, as Jasminka held onto her, her arms stopped flailing. Her breathing didn't stop, though. She reached for a pillow and, much to everyone’s surprise, sobbing noises could be heard.

Amanda awkwardly got up from the floor. She had never seen Constanze cry before, but she hardly blamed her. Conz hated breaking from routine...and _this_ was a massive break from routine.

“Hey, hey…” she said, her voice suddenly sounding…gentle? Amanda walked up, her hair still a violent mess. She got onto a knee and pat Constanze on her back.

“It’ll be alright, okay Conz? I’ll make sure this get fixed. I promise.”

Jasminka came in for a hug, and Constanze’s sobbing slowly began to slow down. Everyone else in the room were surprised by Amanda’s sudden change in demeanor.

 _Is Amanda like this a lot?_ Akko thought to herself.

Diana sighed. She wasn’t as acquainted with Constanze as she would have liked, but she could understand her plight, especially considering she was possessing Constanze’s own body. Her own freak-out from earlier seemed an overreaction by comparison.

“We need to talk to someone about this…” Diana sighed.

“But the book said this might be permanent, didn’t it?” Akko pointed out.

“ _Might_ is the operative word here, Akko,” Diana responded.

Hannah looked over the book again. “Wait a tick…there’s more to it.”

“What’s it say?” Lotte asked.

“It says that permanent body lock _can_ be undone if it’s treated within a week’s time.”

“So, we’ve got until next Sunday,” Sucy sighed. “We better make this quick and find someone.”

“Do you think Professor Finnelan would be able to help?” asked Barbara.

“Oh, like hell Finnelan would let me off the hook for that!” Amanda commented, her voice snapping back into a hoarse yell. “Hell, most of the teachers here would probably get me expelled for this!”

“You _do_ have quite the record to your name,” Diana snarked.

“ _Watch it_ , Cavendish,” Amanda huffed.

“What about Professor Ursula?” asked Hannah. “She’s nice to most of you.”

“Er…” Akko mumbled.

“Er…what?” Hannah replied.

“She’s…busy…”

“With?” Diana asked.

Akko bent her head down. “…Croix.”

Sucy’s eyes went wide. “Motherf--”

“Sucy!” Lotte interrupted.

“She _does_ remember that Croix kinda, sorta, y’know, uh, _almost got us killed with an evil magic nuke_ , right?” Amanda growled.

“And she helped us stop it!” Akko protested. “Besides, Croix served her time, she’s back out on parole, and Ursula wanted to pay her a visit for the week and catch up.”

“Out already?” Diana asked.

“She got out for good behavior!” Akko replied. Everyone else could scarcely believe it.

“Akko, not that I think it’s a bad thing to let Professor Ursula have fun…” Lotte said, “but I think we might need to call her back here.”

“No way!” Akko countered. “I don’t wanna interrupt her visit! She said she’d be back in a few days, we can ask her then!”

“And what are we supposed to do before she gets back?” Barbara asked.

Diana sighed. The one other option she saw wasn't the most _ideal_ one...but she really didn't know what else to do.

“Well girls…if going to the faculty means O’Neill will get in trouble...then I suppose we’ll just have to pretend to be each other for the next couple of days…until Professor Ursula is back to help us fix this.”

Hannah shot Diana a look of gratitude. Diana replied with an annoyed look that read “You owe me one”.

“Ugggh…I’m sure I can still get pissed off enough to channel the spell right!” Amanda growled, grabbing her wand again. “Neurali--”

“Amanda!” Hannah shouted, grabbing her partner’s arm and slowly lowering it down. “Let’s not.”

“...Fine. Guess I might just head over to Cavendish’s room to…get into character or whatever.”

Slowly, Amanda got up and began to walk out of the room. She looked exhausted. Her hair…Diana’s hair, it was still slightly torched and tangled, ash still covering her face. She hated how it tickled around her neck and ears. Long hair was a bane for her, she’d always cut it short for a reason.

She paused and turned around before she could fully step outside. “Um…someone’s gonna fix my door, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This is a shorter fic we're gonna be doing in-between working on chapters of Devil's Drink. This'll probably be quicker to release (this chapter took about a week to make, as a matter of fact), and I'm very excited for people to read it. The concept came around from, as with our other fic, me and Karkat kind of goofing around with ideas on Discord. It'll only be a few chapters long, dunno how many but we're not looking to make a lengthy fanfic here. Next chapter of Devil's Drink should be done within the next few weeks, hopefully by the beginning of August. Hope you like this!-Diana1969
> 
> I don't know if I have quite as firm a grip on the LWA characters as the MHA cast, but I still think we did a pretty decent job with them. Plus, it's fun writing something more lighthearted than Devil's Drink for once. I hope you all enjoy the story!-KarkatTheDalek
> 
> EDIT 1/7/2020: I went back and made some edits to this chapter, felt like going back through to correct some mistakes in grammar/formatting and make everything cleaner looking. Better descriptions, better transitions, little more detail in some places. Hope it's alright!--Diana1969


	2. Defective Diana

“So…we’re gonna be spending the week in Blue Team’s dorm, huh?” Amanda sighed. She sat herself down in Diana's big green chair, taking in how spacious the room was. While it was far too fancy for her taste, she couldn’t help but admit that it was nice to have a room where she could finally stretch. Her legs were crossed and laying on one arm of the chair, her back laying against the other arm, while her hands were behind her head.

“Well, not an _entire_ week--it’s just for the next few days of class, ” Jasminka said, a smile on her face as she sat on the couch opposite Amanda. She was clutching a bag of chocolates, but she wasn’t eating much of them. Since Hannah’s body wasn’t used to taking in a lot of food, Jasminka was already feeling a bit sick. Next to her, Constanze was sitting on the floor, not looking at either of them. Her eyes were puffy and red, and she seemed to be lost in thought.

Amanda sighed again. “Hey Jasna, can you be honest with me?”

“Hmm?”

“How can you be…y’know, happy and smiling about this and stuff?”

Jasminka thought for a moment. “Well…we’ve been through worse, yeah? And it’s not like we haven’t gotten through that!”

“Well, you’re not wrong…”

Amanda got up from the chair, looking at the time. It was half past eleven, so they still had time to do quite a bit today.

“You think we actually _will_ get out of this, though?”

“Amanda, don’t say that…” Jasminka said.

“I dunno, just…”

Amanda looked over at her hands one more time. Being in Diana’s body was funny when she thought it would be temporary, but now? She hated it. Not because she hated Diana, no. As much as she prodded and teased that girl, she begrudgingly respected her as a friend of Akko’s (not that she would ever, y’know, _say it_ ). But something else was nagging at the back of her mind...

“I guess we’re not gonna be able to…do the _thing_ we were planning on doing, remember?”

“Oh. Right. _That_ …”

Constanze’s ears perked up. She walked over to the nightstand between Hannah and Barbara’s beds, and snatched a notebook. She took out a pencil and furiously wrote a few words down, before showing it to Amanda and Jasminka.

“ _What were you planning?_ ”

Amanda gulped.

_Hoo boy..._

“Alright, I can’t lie to you, Constanze,” Amanda lied. “The truth is...well…we just wanted to...y’know...just gank some shit from a bank or something, yeah? See, I was gonna use Jasminka’s muscles to break in while she’d pretend to be me in class, so no one would be the wiser!”

Constanze tapped the notebook again, glaring at Amanda. While she could be surprisingly intimidating in her real body, being almost eye level for once only amplified it.

“Amanda, tell her the truth,” Jasminka said. “She didn’t want to get caught in this.”

Amanda sighed. “Alright, fine, fine…I was gonna steal a necklace for Hannah.”

Constanze’s eyes went wide, her arms going down to her side. Amanda wasn’t really sure how to interpret this.

“Um…yeah so…it was a thing I couldn’t afford like _at_ _all_ , and I figured that Jasna and I could just swap bodies and I could run off to Blytonbury and snatch it. Those old goats in class always check for anyone using metamorphosis magic, so that wouldn’t have been an option for me, but body swapping seemed like it could work.”

Constanze seemed to process this for a moment, her face looking vacant again. Then, she scribbled something else in the notebook.

“ _You like her that much?_ ”

Amanda blushed. “I mean…yeah, dude! We’ve been going steady for a while now, this is the longest I’ve ever been with a girl! And uh…well, as you can imagine, I totally screwed the pooch there.”

Constanze scribbled once again on the paper.

" _I'm_ _still mad. But I_ _guess I_ _understand now._ ”

Amanda gave a small grin and patted Constanze on her shoulder. “If Akko’s right, Ursula will help us. I’ll make it up to ya, Conz, I promise.”

Constanze didn’t react immediately. She walked herself back over to the nightstand and put the notebook back where it belonged, before glaring back at Amanda.

“You best,” she said, her voice low, wooden, and _very_ German despite Barbara’s squeak being thrown in. Constanze usually traded a scant few words with Green Team, though it was more than she did with anyone else. Amanda supposed that in an odd way, it meant she was more comfortable around her and Jasminka.

“Ugh…I am not gonna make it through the rest of the day with Cavendish’s hair…” Amanda sighed, running her hands through the long blonde locks. Suddenly, an idea struck her. A very _cheeky_ idea. One that would, in all likelihood, cause Diana to seethe with rage...but it would also be totally worth seeing.

“Hey, Jasna…you got a pair of scissors?”

* * *

“Alright girls…just like how we rehearsed, right?” Akko asked.

Lotte and Diana both sighed. As much as they trusted Akko, it was sometimes... _difficult_ to have faith in her unorthodox plans.

“Girls?”

Diana silently groaned. She crossed her arms and stiffened her gait while giving the meanest frown she could. The result was...unnatural, to say the least--like a cat with indigestion.

“Okay…maybe just go with something a _little_ more neutral, Diana. Lotte?”

Lotte stammered a bit before opening up the bag of chips she was carrying. Quivering, she awkwardly moved to put a chip in her mouth.

“I-I’m not really hungry, Akko…” she whimpered.

“It’s all about blending in, Lotte! Now, for my turn…” Akko placed her arms behind her head, like Amanda always did, and relaxed her knees a bit. She tried thinking of the kind of thoughts she imagined Amanda would think of.

“Um, okay… ‘Nyah, I’m Amanda O’Neill, see? I’m gonna fly a broom at Mach 3 while mackin’ on my girlfriend, see? Let’s go steal the Hope Diamond, see?’”

“...What are you doing?” asked Diana.

“I’m being Amanda!”

“She’s not a 1920’s mobster!”

Akko groaned.

“Well _fine_ then, Ms. Critical, let’s just go then!”

And before Diana and Lotte could say anything else, she walked into the classroom. Diana closed her eyes and breathed through her nose as the two of them headed in after her.

 _It’s just for the next few days, Diana…this_ _will_ _be over soon…_

Akko made her way to Amanda’s seat, close to the bottom of the middle row of seats. She sat down, placed her legs on the desk, and for a moment, looked close to pulling off Amanda’s confident smirk.

That moment was promptly dashed when Akko slipped out of her seat and hit her head on the floor.

“Wow, O’Neill, you usually aren’t this much of a klutz. You okay?” came a familiar voice. Akko looked up and saw Avery standing above her, condescending as ever.

“Uh…” Akko mumbled. She coughed and slowly rose back up, desperately thinking about how Amanda would respond to this.

“I mean, yeah, totally, I’m totally fine, ya snoot!” she said, twisting her voice as much as possible into what she hoped was an improved American accent. To Diana’s ear, it came out like a bad southern twang mixed with a California valley girl. “I’m still tryna wake myself up an’ all, y’see? Figured nothin’ like a fall on your face in the mornin’ to pump the blood!”

Next to her, Diana pinched the bridge of her nose again. At least she had Constanze’s annoyed look down.

“Um…alright then…” Avery said, not quite sure how to respond. She would ordinarily be mad about being called a “snoot”, but this was too weird for her to process. “...Seriously, are you feeling okay?”

“Y-Yeah, perfectly fine, dude! Just got a bit of a sore throat, y’know? That time a’year an’ all.”

_Oh crap oh crap oh crap this plan is falling apart…_

Avery paused. “Well, if you’re sick, hop by the nurse’s later. Just try not to hurt yourself, please. I know how _stubborn_ you Americans are.”

Akko breathed a sigh of relief. “Will do, bro! Catch ya later, baconator!”

As Avery walked away, Akko nervously sat back up, wisely choosing to keep her legs on the floor this time. Her heart was thumping like a drum as she turned to Lotte and Diana, both visibly cringing at Akko’s poor impression.

“That was a close one…” she whispered, this time in her natural voice.

“Akko, word of advice,” Diana whispered back, “tone the twang down a bit, Amanda doesn’t talk _quite_ that redneck. And…ugh, this needs work…”

“What’s a redneck?” Akko asked.

Before Diana could answer, Sucy walked in…and Akko could feel her blood run cold as she saw Sucy’s bizarre imitation of her. She was _smiling_. It wasn’t like she never smiled, but there was a difference between a nice Sucy smile (well, Sucy level nice) and whatever _this_ monstrosity was. It looked like Sucy was forcing every muscle in Akko’s face to hold up that smile, and it hurt to keep it that way. Her eyes were bloodshot and bulging, and her gums were strained as they were pulled aside to show all of her teeth. Akko was honestly worried that if she kept it up for much longer, Sucy would tear her face apart. The Filipina flailed her arms across her sides as she walked in, her hunch still noticeable. It was eerie, to say the least. Like an ugly plastic marionette.

Hannah and Barbara followed Sucy inside. Barbara seemed to be emulating Lotte’s posture well enough, though there was a noticeable stiffness in her step, mostly likely out of awkwardness. Hannah, however, looked downright silly. She was barely trying to copy Sucy’s slouch, and was instead fiddling around with her hair while she walked to her seat, sweating nervously around her cheeks. There was a cut around her lip from accidentally biting on it with Sucy’s teeth.

Avery turned around for a brief moment to see Akko smiling right in her face. She clasped her hands over her mouth and almost screamed.

“K-Kagari, what the heck??” she exclaimed.

“I told you that smile wasn’t going to fool anyone…” sighed Hannah.

Sucy struggled to think of a response. She had to make it feel natural, but how?

_Think of dead things, Sucy…like how dead you’re probably gonna be by the time this week is over…or how dead you'll be before that…or how dead Akko is gonna be after this week…yeah, that’ll do…_

Slowly, she adjusted herself into a more relaxed grin. Granted, it was a rather insidious one, but it would do for now.

She coughed. “Oh, just thinking of a dumb joke, Avery, hehe!” Sucy suddenly said, her attempt at sounding bubbly and cheerful coming off very forced. Akko huffed in her desk listening to this, not the least bit amused.

“...sounds about like you, I guess,” Avery sighed. 

_Does this school have a gas leak or something?_ she wondered.

Amanda walked in next, and almost every girl in the room saw their eyes turn to her direction. Diana could only look in horror (while everyone else looked in awe) as she saw what Amanda had done to her hair. Those blonde locks had been messily cut, their tips now resting on Diana’s…er, Amanda’s shoulders. It looked butch-ish. Not completely butch. Amanda had taken care to keep a feminine touch (with Jasminka’s help, of course), but Diana felt her blood almost boil looking at it. It came down just below her neck, only barely touching the shoulders, with a slightly rounded look. Surprisingly, Amanda decided to wear a tie with the outfit and button it properly...perhaps she realized anything beyond a haircut was too much. Jasminka kept her arms in front of her, awkwardly walking behind Amanda, Hannah's ponytail rendered a bit of a mess. Constanze came last, shaking her head with displeasure upon each step. She still wasn't happy.

With only a few minutes before class, Diana got up from her seat to examine Amanda's change to her haircut. She crossed her arms with disapproval.

"Are you bloody _serious_?" she whispered.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Look, either this or I'm gonna be tuggin' on my hair all class and blowing our cover. It _really_ messes with my ADHD, dude."

"If she's gotta be you, she needs to pay at least _some_ attention," Jasminka added. "And you know Amanda, she's...it'd be rude of me to say but she knows what I mean."

Diana took in another strained breath. This girl was exhausting. "Fine. Akko's been suggesting a shorter trim anyways...though I don't think anything _quite_ like this."

"Well, glad I could be of service, Cavendish," Amanda smirked, giving a playful wink. Beside her, Constanze made an annoyed gagging noise.

As Diana returned to her seat, she found herself almost maddeningly repeating a mantra. “Just the next few days…”

After that parade of embarrassment had concluded, Professor Finnelan walked into the classroom. She held her wand to her chest as she scanned the room, and Amanda gulped from the sight of its glow. She knew what Finnelan was up to, of course. The teachers had long grown wise to shapeshifting antics, and it was routine to weed out anyone skipping by using a counter to the metamorphosis spell. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be catching anything...for now, at least.

Finnelan went to the front of the class and opened up a textbook.

“Good morning, class,” she said, before doing a double take. “Miss Cavendish, is that a new haircut?”

Shit. Time to engage.

“Um...why, yes indeed!” Amanda said brightly, putting on the best English accent that she could muster. Compared to the half-assed travesty she'd put on previously, it was a marketable improvement, though only a vague (and slightly deeper) approximation of Diana's actual voice. “I figured I’d go for something a little more randy, ma’am.”

“...Randy?” Finnelan asked, confused. “Is this based on a...boy, then?”

“Er…no ma’am, what I mean is a little more… _cool_. Since the Noir Rod incident, I figured I might as well loosen up a bit.”

“I...see. Well, as long as this isn’t part of a path to delinquency, I suppose it’s none of my concern.”

Amanda’s eye twitched for a moment.

“...Yes, ma’am,” she said, trying her best not to call her teacher a “heinous bitch”.

“Very good,” said Finnelan. “Now then, today we’ll be continuing our lesson on Hegelian dialectics and their relationship to magic and the structure of spells. If you will all turn your textbooks to page 121…”

Amanda groaned. She had no idea who this Hegel person was or what was his relationship with magic, and frankly she didn’t know why she should care. But she had to pretend to be Diana. She had to pretend she cared.

... _God_ , this was going to be harder than she thought.

“Now,” said Finnelan, “for a refresher, can anyone tell me who Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was and what was his significance?”

Diana almost raised her hand to answer this question. Almost. Lotte, knowing darn well that Diana would instinctively answer, moved to keep Diana’s hand from going up.

As it turned out, this was a mistake, as she had once again severely underestimated Jasminka’s strength.

Diana let out a squeak as she suddenly felt half her arm being crushed by what Lotte had hoped was a light push. She covered her mouth with her other hand and tried holding in a scream, while Lotte nervously whimpered again.

“What’s going on back there?” Professor Finnelan asked sharply, craning her neck to get a better look. “Miss Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, is something the matter?”

“S-She’s alright!” Lotte said, struggling for whatever kind of Russian accent she could make. Again, not too hard for her, she didn't live too far from Russia anyways. “She just hit her arm on something earlier, it’s still a bit bruised.”

“I see. Well then, does _anyone_ know the answer? Anyone at all?”

Amanda glanced around, hoping that somebody would raise their hand, but she had no such luck. She knew that it would look suspicious if Diana came up short here...but on the other hand, she had absolutely no clue what she was supposed to say.

 _Fuck, I have to risk it…_ she thought, half-heartedly raising her hand...

“Miss Jannson?” asked Finnelan. “Could you enlighten us?”

Amanda breathed a sigh of relief. Barbara had taken a save for her.

Barbara coughed, loosening her throat a bit. She didn’t really know how to do a Finnish accent, in all honesty. Lotte’s sounded _kind of_ Swedish but kind of _not_ Swedish? Or at least, to Barbara’s ears it did. Then again, for the longest time she’d thought that Finland was just part of Iceland, so maybe Nordic matters were a _bit_ of blind spot for her.

“ _Ahem_...Hegahl vas…de Germahn pheeloseepher who…um…popyoolarized de concept of…the dialectic…and…”

_Oh bloody hell, this doesn’t sound anything like her!_

“…Miss Jansson, are you quite alright?” Finnelan asked, this time with a bit more concern in her voice. Next to Barbara, Hannah and Sucy were both covering their mouths. Hannah was trying not to scream in frustration, and Sucy was trying not to burst out laughing.

“Erm…j-just a…a-allargees…” Barbara whimpered. To emphasize, she gave a little fake sneeze, followed by a pitiful cough.

“Well, you have part of it right,” Finnelan said, casting a suspicious eye towards Barbara. “Hegel was a German philosopher who was part of the idealist movement in the 19th century. He popularized what became known as the Hegelian dialectic and the triad of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Now, what many _don’t_ know is that the Hegelian dialectic merely helped codify dialectics for society at large, and it in fact drew heavy inspiration from a magical dialectic pioneered by the Nine Olde Witches centuries earlier.”

Finnelan sniffed. “They gave Hegel all the credit, of course. _Men_ ,” she said scornfully. “Regardless, the finer points of his theories still merit study, so if you will all take a look at your textbooks…”

The class proceeded as usual. Amanda, thankfully, got in a few simple questions. Sucy kept herself silent. Occasionally, even Lotte would speak up. But Akko was already getting bored and slowly falling asleep.

 _Ngh...guess it doesn’t matter...Amanda probably falls asleep in class_ all _the time…_

Her eyes slowly drooped and her head began to sink onto her desk…

“Are we _boring_ you, Miss O’Neill?”

Oh good, she wasn’t looking at her for once…

“ _Miss O’Neill!_ ”

Something jabbed her hard in the side.

“ _That’s you!”_ hissed a squeaky voice.

_Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!_

Akko suddenly jerked awake, sparking laughter from several of the other students. Diana, who had been the one to elbow her, rolled her eyes, while Finnelan leveled a glare at her.

“So kind of you to join us,” the teacher said, her mouth set in a thin line. “Well then, let’s see if you’ve been keeping up on the reading. Can you tell me the name of Hegel’s most famous disciple?”

Okay, so Akko _hadn’t_ kept up on this reading...but then again, this actually seemed familiar…

“...Karl Marx?” she ventured.

Finnelan stared at her.

“...Yes, that’s right,” she said. “...Thank you, Miss O’Neill. Now, moving on…”

“How did you know that?” Lotte whispered to Akko.

“I did a lot of research on working class struggles after the fairy strike,” Akko answered with a grin. “I guess I just picked it up?”

“If only the same could be true for everything else you’re supposed to study,” muttered Diana.

“You don’t need to say it like _that_ ,” pouted Akko.

"We _are_ the ones helping you with that, y'know," Lotte mumbled, before turning her attention back to their lesson.

“Now, as I said before Hegel’s triad of thesis, antithesis and synthesis drew heavily from the Nine Olde Witches’ theories, and is a core part of dialectics in witchcraft,” continued Finnelan continued. “Can anyone tell me how?”

For a moment, no one raised their hand--Diana, still smarting from Lotte’s accidental blow, didn’t bother trying to answer. Then, suddenly…

“Miss Kagari?” said Finnelan, stunned. “ _You_ know the answer?”

Sucy, again sporting her rather terrifying grin, got to her feet.

“Thesis, antithesis and synthesis are a crucial part of creating new spells,” she answered cheerfully, slipping into a more natural tone. “Contradiction, being what drives the material world, is used heavily in witchcraft. For example, let us say there is the thesis that the human body can be magically transformed into that of a mouse. This is countered by an antithesis--in this case, the fact that transformation magic is limited in how much mass can be displaced upon transformation, and that mass must go somewhere. So by combining the two, we find the solution, or the synthesis--a spell that can temporarily shunt away the body’s mass to allow the transformation to occur. That is dialectics.”

Everyone stared at Sucy, either dumbfounded that Akko Kagari of all people was able to provide such an elegant answer, or dreading that Sucy was seemingly about to blow their cover. Hannah and Barbara were already looking nervously at Sucy, both shaking in fear.

Finnelan blinked and shook her head in a daze.

“That’s...erm...absolutely correct,” she said, feeling as though her view of the world was crumbling around her. “Very well answered...Miss Kagari…”

At that moment, Sucy realized that several of the other girls were staring at her with suspicious looks on their faces. For all she knew, they probably thought that Akko had taken some special potion to increase her intelligence or something along those lines. She had to act fast…

“Or, um, something like that!” she said, putting her hand behind her head while giving the dumbest looking grin she could conjure. Her voice slipped back into the same forced tone she was pulling earlier, but the grin was, thankfully, not as terrifying. “By the way, uh...when’s lunch? I could really go for, like, a hamburger or something!”

“Hmm…as a matter of fact, I do believe we’re at the end of today’s class,” Finnelan said, closing her book. As if right on cue, the bell rang. “Remember to do the readings for Wednesday, everyone. You are dismissed.”

A wave of relief came over the girls. It seemed that not even Sucy breaking character could destroy their act. If they could keep this up for the next few days, nothing could go wr--

“Miss Cavendish and Miss Kagari, might I have a quirk word with you two?”

Amanda quickly felt fear take hold over her.

_Shit._

The students began to file out of the classroom, a few casting quick glances at Sucy and Amanda. The other body-swapped girls in particular looked at them with concern, but Sucy waved them off, signaling them to go on ahead.

"Guess we've got a head start before she kills us," Hannah snarked.

Once everyone else had left, the two of them approached Finnelan.

“Well now, Miss Kagari, that was a...very interesting display,” their teacher said evenly.

“Really?” said Sucy as cheerfully as possible. “Thank you very much, ma’am!”

“Indeed…” said Finnelan, before turning her attention to Amanda, who fought with all her might to remain calm. Despite this, the worst case scenario began to flash through her head.

 _Shitshitshit, she knows, she_ totally _knows! They’re gonna expel me, they’re gonna kick me out, they’re gonna-_

“Well done, Miss Cavendish,” said Finnelan, giving Amanda an approving nod. “You’ve done a fine job tutoring Miss Kagari.”

 _...Oh_.

“Um...it was nothing, ma’am!” said Amanda. “I was just doing what any student should do.”

Finnelan smiled, something that Amanda had never seen before, much less directed at her.

“You needn’t be so modest,” she told her. “Or so tense, for that matter. Even a witch of your level of excellence ought to relax every now and then. The haircut seems to be a start, I see.”

“Thank you, ma’am, I’ll keep that in mind,” said Amanda with a small sigh of relief--they were in the clear.

“As for you, Miss Kagari, I like this new you,” Finnelan said to Sucy. “I hope to see more of her going forward.”

“You got it, Professor!” said Sucy, flashing another terrifying grin.

“Um...wonderful,” said Finnelan, clearly perturbed by the unnatural smile. “Well...I suppose that’s all. Thank you both, you may go.”

* * *

“Some save we got there, huh?” Amanda said after the two had left the classroom far behind.

“More like a miracle,” Sucy replied with her typical cold monotone, her expression returned to a bored frown. “Guess we have at least one teacher fooled?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to fool the rest of ‘em at this rate.”

“I guess…” Sucy sighed. It was clear that something was on her mind.

“What’s up?”

Sucy turned her gaze to the ground for a moment. “Is Constanze feeling any better?”

Amanda paused. Truth be told, she hadn’t expected Sucy to be the one to ask this question.“Uh…yeah, she is, actually. Still mad but, y’know, she’s not trying to kill me or Jasna. For her, I’d say that’s an improvement.”

Sucy gave an odd sound through her nose…a snort? A chuckle? It had to have been something like that, though her typical emotionless glare didn’t make it obvious. “That’s good to hear.”

Amanda gave Sucy an odd look. While she’d hung out with Sucy a lot, she’d never actually had a proper _talk_ with her before. It wasn’t for lack of trying--Sucy wasn’t a super talkative person by nature.

“You two close or somethin’?” Amanda asked.

Sucy gave a shrug. “Eh, we play video games sometimes, watch movies--nothing special. She doesn’t talk to me, but that’s fine. Sometimes it’s nice to be around someone who’s quiet...for once.”

“I see…” Amanda said, a sudden idea coming to mind. “...Want me to set you two up?”

Sucy rolled her eyes. “Not interested. I’m not exactly the romance type. Besides, I don’t really have those kind of feelings for her...or...anyone, really, I guess?”

“More of a mushroom and potions girl, eh?” Amanda teased, nudging Sucy with her elbow. “ _Eh?_ ”

“Mm, more or less,” Sucy said, blank as ever.

“Well, I suppose I could try hooking you up with a different friend of mine--who knows, maybe you’ll be able to click with ‘em. He’s a pretty… _f_ _un guy,_ if y’know what I mean,” Amanda laughed, nudging Sucy a bit harder. For once, Sucy actually gave a bit of a smile in response.

“That pun was terrible and you know it,” she snorted. “Besides, I’m not into guys.”

“Gay.”

“Something like that,” Sucy replied.

“Speaking of gay, “Amanda said, “how’s Han doing?”

“Ugh…insufferable.”

“Sounds like her,” Amanda smirked. “She’s a handful sometimes.”

“How do you deal with it?”

“I dunno? Maybe it’s because I can actually lean over and scare her. She isn’t exactly vertically inclined, know what I’m sayin’?”

“I don’t but I’m gonna pretend I do and we can move on.”

Amanda grinned, though secretly she couldn’t help but feel troubled. All this talk about Hannah had reminded her that she still needed to get her that necklace...but how? She could hardly just steal it while in the body of someone whose reputation was sterling goddamn platinum--she was willing to do a lot to get it, but not frame someone for her own crimes. What to do…

She shook her head. There would be time to worry about that later.

“Alright,” she said to Sucy, “how ‘bout we head down to lunch, find out what the plan is no-”

Suddenly, a bright flash blinded the two, throwing Amanda off balance. A loud voice suddenly cut through, as a certain journalist appeared before them.

“ _ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!_ Ladies and gents, we’ve got here Luna Nova’s very own power couple, Atsuko Kagari and Diana Cavendish, and what’s this? A new haircut for our very own esteemed Cavendish? Whattascoop, whattascoop!”

Wangari pointed her microphone right into Amanda’s face, an uncomfortably enthusiastic smile on her face as per usual. One of her cohorts, the bespectacled Joanna, was proudly holding her camera in front of her chest, while the drab Kimberly gave a blank stare, holding a notepad. 

“I...uh...you…” Amanda stammered, trying her best to stay in-character. “N-now see here, Wangari! There’s something to be said for respecting the privacy of others, you know!”

“Hey, freedom of the press!” protested Joanna. “You can’t tell us what stories to cover!”

“The rich always want to control the media,” Kimberly said matter-of-factly. “We can’t let the corporations win.”

“Y-You’re being ridiculous!” Amanda said, struggling to contain her anger within Diana’s cultured tones. “This isn’t some crucial exposé--this is celebrity gossip! Tabloid journalism! Paparazzi fodder!”

“Insulted reporters…” muttered Kimberly as she scribbled down notes. “Referred to self as ‘celebrity’...”

“HOW DARE--”

“Alright, alright, let’s ease up on them, girls,” Wangari said, motioning for Kimberly to stop taking notes. “Remember--don’t burn your bridges to catch small fish.”

Amanda sighed. “ _Thank you._ ”

“Don’t mention it,” replied Wangari. “But you doing alright, Diana? You’re usually fine with giving us a quote or two. Something up?”

“Well, I...um…”

“Oh, she’s just _exhausted_ ,” Sucy cut in, lovingly grasping Amanda’s shoulder. “It’s been _such_ a long day, and the teachers have been working her _so_ hard, it’s just not fair!”

The three reporters’ ears perked up at this. “The teachers?” asked Wangari. “What’ve they been doing?”

“Oh, just work for the Beltane festival. It’s gonna be great! They’ve got this huge, flaming apparition set up, and everyone’s going to have to team up to fight it...oh, but you didn’t hear it from me, ‘kay?”

“Got it, got it,” said Wangari. “If you’ll just excuse us…”

She took off down the hallway, Joanna and Kimberly in hot pursuit. Amanda and Sucy watched them go, before sighing in relief.

“Nice one,” said Amanda appreciatively. “But won’t they be pissed at you when they find out you lied?”

“Eh, maybe,” said Sucy. “But with any luck, Akko’ll be the one to deal with that.”

“I’ll be the one to deal with what?”

Amanda jumped back a step as Akko suddenly materialized out of nowhere. “How long were you over there and why didn’t you say anything?”

“For like a few seconds, and because I wanted to watch two of my best friends bond more!” Akko enthusiastically exclaimed.

Sucy rolled her eyes and gagged. “Shameless.”

“Anyways, what did Professor Finnelan have to say to you?” Akko asked. "She hasn't found us out, has she?"

“Well, she thinks Diana’s tutoring has really paid off on you. Looks like Sucy isn’t doing too bad an impression of you after all,” Amanda responded.

“At least I don’t have to smile much anymore…it hurt. Physically _and_ emotionally,” Sucy dryly replied. "You have no idea how much I hate this."

“It was, uh…pretty enthusiastic…” Akko nervously responded, flashing an awkward smile. “Anyways, we’re all having lunch right now…think we can keep this up for the rest of the day? If Finnelan didn’t notice, we’re probably doing pretty good!”

Hearing this, Amanda turned to Sucy and flashed a cheeky grin.

“Flirt with me like you’re Diana and I’m turning your hair into snakes,” Sucy coldly responded.

“Alright, alright,” Amanda replied hastily. “Can’t help it if I feel like celebrating. And hey, whatever else happens, I doubt this’ll be the worst day of our lives,” Amanda replied. “Right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, new chapter, hope you guys like it! This one was a blast to write. Me and Karkat really went at it with the humor, but we also had to cut some stuff to use in later chapters. I get nervous about making chapters too long. Now, we've got some stuff going on IRL that's gonna delay the next chapter of Devil's Drink, so it'll be out when it's out. We're not giving up on it, we're just distracted. Spellswitched might see some delays as well. But don't fret, it's still coming out! I hate taking so long but it's always worth seeing you guys respond positively to what we write.-Diana1969
> 
> EDIT 1/7/2020: So, went back and made some edits to this chapter. I always felt like the initial posting of this was lacking in detailing Amanda's haircut, so I decided to go back and add a bit to that section and throw in a tiny bit of humor there. Otherwise, mostly it's just small edits to formatting, structure, and other minor bits. Hope y'all like it!


	3. Flight Class Fiasco

“That was the worst day of my entire life,” Hannah sighed, clutching her sore cheek. The girls had successfully managed to fool the rest of the teachers that day, though it hadn’t been easy. Each class only increased their collective anxieties. Akko and Amanda barely made it through Babcock's lecture, Sucy fought to stay in-character during Lukic's potion demonstration (after a scolding for her slip-up in Finnelan's), and Hannah could barely even stomach the fumes in that same class. Still, despite the odds, they had persevered, and now they were eating dinner in the dining hall, Hannah’s face covered by the long bangs that formerly belonged to Sucy.

“Hey, I think you did a pretty good job!” Amanda said with a smirk while nudging Hannah with her shoulder. “You’ve got that pissed off, ‘done with this shit’ look down. If Lukic didn’t notice, then you’re _definitely_ in the clear.”

“Ugh…at least you’re encouraging,” Hannah sighed. Despite how shitty the day had been, at least Amanda could bring her spirits up a tiny bit.

“I think I did well enough handling Babcock,” Barbara said. “Throwing in a bit of sweet talk about Night Fall certainly helped.”

“Oh, I’m glad you took my advice!” Lotte replied. “Though uh…heh, you might need to work on my accent a bit…”

Barbara blushed, covering her mouth. “I’m so sorry! I don’t know how to imitate a Finnish accent!” she whimpered, her voice getting oddly quiet. “I-I spent long enough figuring out _this_ accent.”

“Well,” Diana interjected, “if O’Neill could somehow get my accent done at least half-decently, I think you can accomplish Lotte's accent, Barbara. Fortunately, I don’t really have to talk.”

“Which is a relief,” Amanda snarked.

Diana rolled her eyes. “ _Anyways_ , we’ve gotten through today, so I’d call that a victory…hairstyle changes or otherwise.”

She shot Amanda a dirty glare at that last comment. Amanda only gave a wink in reply.

Diana continued. “Tomorrow is Professor Nelson’s flight class…Akko, are you sure you’ll be okay there?”

“I’ll try!” Akko said confidently. “I’ve gotten a _lot_ better over the past few months!”

“Right but…you’ll be flying as _me_ , Akko,” Amanda replied. “And you know how I fly, right?”

Akko paused, a sudden realization hitting her. This was a heavy task to undertake, yes. She felt her cheeks flush.

“Uh…you gonna answer?” Amanda asked.

“Haphazardly?” Diana snarked.

“Chaotically?” Sucy snorted.

“Majestically?” Hannah answered.

“I was thinking _totally awesome and better than the rest of you peons_ , but sure, all of that works,” Amanda laughed. “Funny how many mixed reactions I get.”

“ _Anyway_ ,” Diana sighed, “All Akko needs to do is approximate O’Neill’s broom techniques enough that Professor Nelson doesn’t get suspicious. Sucy will have to perform like Akko--”

“I’m already dreading the bruises,” Sucy sighed.

“And Amanda, you’ll have to fly like me. A bit of poise, a bit of grace, nothing reckless.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll _try_ ,” Amanda whined. “But you do know you’re gonna have to ride Conz’s broom, right?”

Diana paused for a moment. She took in a deep, strained breath. “I…can _try_ to figure out Constanze’s broom. Her technology is not my expertise, but I’m sure she’d be happy to teach me…”

She turned her head to Constanze’s direction. Still upset to be in Barbara’s body, the crabby German could only glare at Diana for a few seconds. She turned to Jasminka and whispered in her ear.

“Um…Constanze said that she’ll help, but she won’t be happy about it,” Jasminka said.

“Sounds about like Conz,” Amanda chuckled.

“By the way, O’Neill, you know I take Magical Astrology, right?” Diana asked.

“I have the period right after yours, yeah. I’m guessin’ they must have a sub coming?” Amanda replied.

“They do, yes. _Try_ to be on your best behavior, please.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard,” said Hannah. “I heard the sub’s pretty laidback - mostly just has everyone do a study hall session. Honestly, it sounds like she barely pays attention - I don’t think you’ll need to particularly impress her or anything.”

“Alright,” said Amanda. “Sounds…”

A thought suddenly struck her. 

_Barely pays attention, huh…_

“Sounds what?” Hannah asked.

“Uh, sounds good then!” Amanda replied, feeling her cheeks slowly grow hot and blushy. “Anyways, me and my girls should probably head out, we’ve got some shit to talk over. Conz, Jasna, you comin’?”

The duo looked at Amanda suspiciously. Her body language was easily recognizable even in this body, and they both could tell when she was scheming. Constanze took a deep breath through her nose and left with Amanda, Jasminka following close behind.

Hannah couldn’t help but notice that Amanda was walking awfully fast just trying to get out of there…though her attention quickly turned back to the mess of hair she’d inherited from Sucy.

“Ghhh, I hate having this gaudy hairdo…” she sighed.

“Figured you’d like having big hair to match your big head,” Sucy snarked.

“I...you...I DO NOT HAVE A BIG HEAD!” protested Hannah.

“You’ve got a big _something_ ,” Sucy replied, blunt as ever.

Hannah blinked in confusion. “Are you…calling me _fat_?”

Sucy scoffed. “I can be mean, but something _that_ low is just crass. I thought you knew me by now, English.”

“It’s _England_ , thank you,” Hannah grumbled. “And if that’s the case, then what exactly do I have something “big” of, Manbavaran?”

“Oh, y’know…” Sucy grinned smugly, taking a sip from a nearby juice box. “A big mouthful of my teeth.”

“WHY YOU LITTLE-”

“Heh, uh, Sucy, y-you could maybe lighten up a _little_ with Hannah, yeah?” Lotte awkwardly asked. As much as she had been used to Sucy’s barbs and jabs, she felt like having Hannah suddenly get loud in the middle of the cafeteria was _not_ going to do them any favors. 

“Y-Yeah,” Barbara nervously giggled, “Han’s probably had enough today, anyways.”

Sucy gave a sigh and got up from her seat. “Fine, fine. I know my limits…usually. I gotta head back to the dorm anyways,” she said. “Catch you girls later.”

As she walked off, Lotte and Akko couldn’t help but notice that Sucy was walking with an odd gait. Her arms were waving around, her legs were skipping…a few people were running in terror from what Akko could only assume was that weird smile Sucy had put on earlier.

“Heh…I’m starting to think Sucy might like being me a little _too_ much…” Akko wearily said. The thought of the next day was already weighing on her.

“Well, like O’Neill says, Akko,” Diana said, “When life gives you lemons…”

“You…throw them in the trash?”

Diana sighed. “Oh, Akko…”

* * *

Amanda rapidly dashed into Diana’s room, her heart beating faster and faster with each step. The gears in her head were still turning, brimming with ideas, and she slammed the door with a tremendous amount of force. Jasminka and Constanze both looked at her with concern.

“Guess what I’m thinkin’!” Amanda chuckled, raising a coy eyebrow.

Jasminka and Constanze exchanged an unsure glance. “Um…taking Hannah out to dinner?” Jasminka asked.

Constanze grabbed the notebook and scribbled something down on it. _“Something that you’ll regret?”_

“Wha...hey, you know I’m incapable of regret!” Amanda scoffed. “You heard what they said, there’s gonna be a lax sub in Magical Astrology. That means we’ve got an opening for necklace hunting!”

Jasminka didn’t know how to respond to this. “But…but Amanda, you can’t do that when you’re in Diana’s body!” Constanze nodded in agreement.

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Hey, look, I don’t wanna ruin Cavendish’s record at all. But would it _really_ ruin it any if the sub doesn’t even pay attention to me leavin’ the room like fifteen minutes into class? I disappear, I go to Blytonbury, get the necklace, and then I come back like it never happened. It’s simple!”

Jasminka shook her head. “I don’t know if this is right, though…”

“Jasna, please,” Amanda sighed. “You didn’t have any issue with taking the fall for me in our original plan, what’s the difference here?”

“The difference is that people _expect_ me to get in trouble,” Jasminka countered. “All three of us here aren’t exactly looked at fondly by the teachers.”

Constanze shot a slightly offended look at Jasminka, who blushed in response.

“Conz, chill, she ain’t wrong,” Amanda said. “I get into shit way more than both of y’all, but Jasna gets in trouble all the time for eating in class…and _you_ kinda have your whole secret lair, y’know.”

Constanze raised her hand to respond, before pausing. “Fair point,” she begrudgingly mumbled.

“Look, Amanda,” Jasminka continued, “if it was you in my own body, it’d be one thing. I get in trouble, well, it’d be for a good cause. But doing it in Diana’s body, without her knowing about it, you’ll be hurting her a lot if you get caught!”

“Well then, I _won’t_ get caught,” Amanda snorted.

“Would you have wanted to do it if I didn’t agree to your first idea?” Jasminka asked.

“No…”

“Then…what’s the difference here?”

Amanda clenched her fist, biting down on her teeth. “Look, you can go and do whatever, but I’m not gonna give up on getting Hannah this necklace.”

Jasminka sighed. “Y’know Amanda, I really try to be nice, but I’m getting _kinda_ frustrated by this.”

“Hey, you don’t think I am too?” Amanda replied. “I’m tryna get my girlfriend something to show that I care about her, and life just decides to slap me in the face over it, how the fuck is that fair?”

“And it won’t be fair to Diana if you go running off in her body like that!”

“Then maybe I’ll _ask_ her.”

“And what if she says no?”

“Then I’ll fuckin’ do it anyways!”

“Amanda!” Jasminka huffed. She rarely raised her voice at anyone, but this time was one rare moment of extreme frustration for her. Even Constanze looked a bit intimidated by Jasminka’s temper. “If you do this, I’m not helping you! I draw the line at hurting Diana’s reputation!”

Amanda was about to reply when a knock came through the door. Everyone in the room paused and quieted down. Amanda opened it up and, to her surprise (and a bit of horror), it was Hannah, clutching her cheek.

“Might I ask for some tissues? I’ve bitten my lip…again.”

Amanda looked at Hannah for a moment, not responding. And then…she chuckled.

“Those fancy schmancy ones Diana keeps by her desk work for ya?” she teased, poking Hannah on her forehead.

“Hmmph…yes, those,” Hannah pouted.

Amanda walked over to Diana’s side of the room and fetched several strips of tissue, messily cobbled together into a scrunched up pile in her hand. “Hope this helps. Worst comes to worst, you could maybe put cotton balls in your mouth. Put corks on your teeth or somethin’.”

“Thank you,” Hannah said, relieved. She wiped one against her bleeding lip, wincing a bit. “That Manbavaran is such a handful to deal with.”

“Oh?” Amanda smirked. “She said the same about you.”

“Ugh, as if,” Hannah scoffed. “What I wouldn’t give to room with you.”

“Maybe when we get out of this,” Amanda replied. “You know I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off ya if we were in our own bodies.”

Hannah raised an eyebrow, a small grin growing on her face. The pain seemed to just melt away when faced with Amanda’s flirting. “Well, we can only hope Professor Ursula gets here soon - I’d hate to wait much longer for that.”

Amanda crossed her arms, a bemused look on her face. Even as she sported her famous smirk, there was more to it this time. A bright gleam in her eye that seemed to hint at something more, something...sincere.

“Speaking of Ursula…” Hannah began, “I wanted to ask you something before I went.”

“Ah, yeah? Shoot.”

“Well, before we proposed going to her, you seemed upset about going to someone else and getting expelled. That's been the whole crux of waiting for Ursula, is the possibility of expulsion. But, per your own admission...and this is something I definitely recall from before we began dating...you didn’t seem to care about getting expelled in the past. So, what changed?”

Amanda’s cheeks suddenly flushed. She’d never thought of that before, but it certainly made sense. She’d never really wanted to be at Luna Nova--her family had pushed her to go, and she’d been looking for any reason to get kicked out. None of it had worked, of course. Somehow, some way, the O'Neill name of fortune tellers was just too damn big to fail. And yet, after one year at this school, she hadn’t been feeling that urge in a while. Something had definitely changed.

“U-Uh…well…” Amanda stuttered. “I, uh…I dunno, I guess.”

Hannah chuckled. Amanda was good at playfully intimidating her, but she could bite back just as effectively. 

“You could just say it’s me and get it over with, you know.”

Amanda blushed even brighter. “You? Psssh, nahhh. No ma’am, absolutely not, never, not even in a million years.” She gave an awkward little smile, before softly elbowing Hannah in the chest.

Hannah giggled in response, nudging Amanda back. “I’d give a peck on the cheek, but I’m not sure I’d do that without biting you on accident. I suppose I’ll just head out for the night, then?”

“Sure thing, Han,” Amanda replied. “Try not to kill Sucy.”

“Still contemplating it,” Hannah said, playfully rolling her eyes. “Good night.”

As Amanda closed the door for her girlfriend, she turned back to Constanze and Jasminka’s direction. Both of them had been silent during Hannah’s brief visit, but it was obvious to see why. Jasminka was sporting a big, dopey smile on her face, looking on the verge of happy tears. Constanze had the notebook out again, her expression remaining stoic, and turned it over to reveal a drawing of a heart.

“…I’ve been dating her for like three months, girls, why’s there a reaction _now_?” Amanda asked, confused and a tiny bit embarrassed. “And weren’t you pissed at me earlier, Jasminka?”

“I can’t be mad about love!” Jasminka replied. “You two have such good chemistry, I can’t even…goodness, it’s like a fairy tale!”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Amanda sighed. She looked at Jasminka again for a moment. Even if it had only been two days, looking at one of her closest friends in her girlfriend’s body…it felt _wrong_. She shook her head and began walking back over to Diana’s side of the room, deep in thought. Jasminka followed her, Constanze not far behind.

“Look, Amanda…if you wanna get her that necklace, then ask Diana. That’s all I want,” Jasminka said. “I’m sorry for raising my voice at you earlier, I just don’t want anyone to get mixed up in this.”

“Ugh…that’s not it…” Amanda mumbled. She plopped herself onto Diana’s bed, her face shoved into the pillow.

“…do you wanna talk about it?” Jasminka asked.

Amanda didn’t respond for a few seconds. Slowly, she turned her head back to her two friends.

“I wanna sleep.”

Jasminka sighed. “Alright. I won’t keep you up. Let’s go, Constanze.”

As Jasminka walked off, Constanze looked at Amanda for a minute. She too seemed to be in deep thought. Slowly, she walked off without saying a word.

Just like Amanda, Constanze’s own gears were turning.

* * *

“Alright, we’re startin’ with a few laps around the track!” Professor Nelson exclaimed, talking into a magic megaphone. “Let’s get about twenty and see how it goes!”

Akko was sweating all over her face, unable to hide the panic growing over her. Sure, imitating Amanda wasn’t an _easy_ thing to do, but she fooled three teachers with it, right? Couldn’t be _that_ hard to pull off. She gave her and Diana her word, she wasn’t about to back down now! But…she might’ve bitten too much off for this task.

Lotte and Diana were nearby, preparing to take off. While Lotte seemed somewhat comfortable on Jasminka’s broom, Diana evidently wasn’t sure what she was doing. She wasn’t even on her broom yet; instead, she was standing next to it, awkwardly poking at the broom’s rotor and making it turn slightly with each poke.

“Er…why exactly does it have a rotor _and_ an exhaust pipe?” she whispered to Lotte.

“I think it’s for extra speed,” Lotte replied.

“Ghh…” Diana sighed. “Here goes nothing…”

Before Diana could even hop onto the broom, however, a sudden _WOOOSH_ signaled that someone was passing them by. Constanze, her legs wrapped awkwardly around Barbara’s broom and her hands shaking as she held it, hopped off and grabbed Diana by her collar.

Diana yelped, turning to see Constanze glaring at her with an unamused expression. She blushed nervously. She hated being so much shorter than everyone. Seeing the eyes of one of her own teammates staring her down like this was not fun at all.

“Am I getting on it wrong?” Diana huffed, resenting this manhandling.

Constanze gave one nod and a grunt. That was her way of saying “yes”.

Diana sighed. “Then show me how to get on it the right way, please?”

Constanze didn’t nod this time. Instead, she forcibly grabbed Diana again, and plopped her onto the broom. Before Diana could even respond, she felt her back pushed down into a seventy-five degree angle, roughly perpendicular to the broom, her head almost slammed into its handles. She immediately gripped them like she was grabbing at a bike, and her legs firmly laid in the notches Constanze installed at its base.

Diana shuddered a bit, incredibly uncomfortable. “I-I mean you no disrespect, but I would’ve appreciated you letting me know that you were going to do that.”

Constanze gave another nod and another grunt. Diana didn’t know what this meant, but she hoped it was Constanze taking a mental note of this.

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind zipped right past them. Diana looked up and could immediately tell who it was. Amanda was flying on her broom to run her laps, uncharacteristically stoic looking.

_...she’s certainly gotten better at pretending, hasn’t she?_

Jasminka came up to the rest of them, nervously munching on a doughnut. It was clear that, like Amanda, she had something on her mind.

“You ready, Jasminka?” Lotte asked. “I, uh, hope I don’t break your broom or anything…” she nervously chuckled. Her fingers were lightly gripped over the broomstick, shaking and trembling.

“Oh?” Jasminka asked, eyes darting around. “Um, my broom is, uh, pretty strong, heh…I-I can’t talk long, I’m sorry. Constanze, let’s get going.” She nudged her head in Amanda’s direction.

Constanze shot Diana one last glare and nodded, hopping back onto her broom. Diana and Lotte watched as they flew off, both in a hurry.

“What do you suppose that could be about?” Diana asked.

“Guess it might be over whatever happened last night,” Lotte reasoned. She turned to Akko, the poor girl shaking in fear.

“Are you alright, Akko?” Diana asked.

Akko gave a fake smile. “Y-Yeah, never better!” she lied. “You girls go on ahead, I-I’ll catch up!”

“Um…alright then?” Lotte said. With a shout of “Tia freyre!”, they both flew off, leaving Akko beyond.

Close to Akko and her group, Sucy and her group were all in position. Sucy’s terrifying grin from the day before was gone, replaced with a bored expression. Nobody batted an eye thankfully, figuring it was simply Akko being tired. Next to her, Hannah had tied the hair she’d inherited from Sucy’s body into a ponytail. She still hadn’t gotten rid of the bangs covering Sucy’s left eye, though.

“Manbavaran, can I _please_ cut some of these bangs?” Hannah whimpered, rubbing her cheek. She’d bitten it during breakfast, and it was still sore.

Sucy shook her head. “I have an image to uphold.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Sure, sure. Have to keep that disdainful loner thing going, after all.”

Suddenly, an idea came to Hannah. A rather... _cheeky_ idea. Something that for once allowed her mind to match Amanda’s when it came to devious antics.

Barbara, positioned behind Hannah and Sucy, immediately caught a glimmer in her friend’s eyes.

_Oh bloody hell, Han…_

“Kagari, Yannson, Manbavaran, you done stretchin’?” Professor Nelson suddenly shouted. “Get on the track and fly some laps!”

Hannah coughed, before tilting her head just enough that her eyes were just barely noticeable. She flashed a wide, toothy grin that made Sucy stare at her in befuddlement.

“…Hannah, what are you doing?” Sucy whispered.

Hannah turned her head a sharp ninety degrees, before speaking in a voice that sounded hardly anything like Sucy’s Visayan accent, but rather not too unlike a certain green witch from Oz. “C’mon, Akko, you _big dummy_ , we gotta stop goofing around and get on the track! Can’t be lollygagging, now can we? Hee hee hee hee heh heh heh, tie freyre!” With a high pitched, gargling chuckle, she took off, leaving Sucy in total confusion.

 _…yeah, I’m gonna_ _have to_ _poison her after this class._

“Sucy, are you gonna be alright?” whispered Barbara, approaching her from behind. “Remember that you need to fly _badly_ so that you can pass as Akko.”

Sucy took in a strained breath. She wasn’t a super exceptional flyer like Amanda or Diana were, but having to pretend she was a _bad_ flyer was going to be difficult.

“Well, if there’s one thing I learned yesterday,” Sucy replied, “it’s that it takes _more_ work to act incompetent than it does to actually _be_ incompetent. It's hell to act like you're dumb. I have an odd respect for Akko now, and I hate it.”

“Well…I suppose that’s good!” Barbara awkwardly smiled, clearly not getting it. “I’ll catch you when this is over! Tia freyre!” she said, taking off.

Sucy sighed again, and muttered a quiet, almost imperceptible “tia freyre”.

 _Well, might as well get this over with,_ she thought as she kicked off the ground. Figuring that Akko would probably play it at least a _little_ safe due to past experience, she made sure to keep her speed as low as she could while still making progress. The end result wasn’t _quite_ as slow as molasses, but it was in the ballpark.

 _Crap, I should probably say something_ , she thought.

“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” she flatly said, moving approximately ten feet in a minute.

Nearby, Avery was floating on her own broom, giving a confused look at what she thought was a rather drab Akko Kagari. “Um…Kagari, you alright?”

Sucy sighed and shot Avery a very unamused look. Between this humiliating tortoise crawl of a flight and Hannah of all people getting one over her, she wasn’t exactly feeling her best.

“No.”

Avery felt a shiver crawl up her spine from that look. It seemed familiar to her, but she couldn’t place where she had seen it. Either way, it looked quite unlike Akko’s typical sunny disposition.

“A-Alright then. Happy flying.”

As Avery flew on ahead, the _actual_ Akko stood watching from the ground.

Watching, and also panicking.

_Oh God, oh God, oh God, I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this!_

“The heck are you doin’, O’Neill?” asked Professor Nelson, looking puzzled. “You’re usually one of the first ones up there. You feelin’ alright?”

“Oh, um...yeah! I feel, um...totally fine, yep!” lied Akko. In fact, the confidence she had expressed earlier had rapidly drained away the second that class had actually started.

“Well alright, just get to it,” replied Nelson. “We don’t got all day!”

“Right, right, right…”

There was no way of getting out of this...unless she faked a medical emergency? What would Amanda even _have_ anyway? Maybe when Nelson wasn’t looking, she could cast a spell to make it look like she had leprosy, and then…

No, no, NO! She couldn’t be a coward here! She had to prove that she could fly just as well as Amanda! It was die or fly!

...Hopefully not literally.

“ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP, SCREWHEADS. THE NAME IS AMANDA _FREAKIN’_ O’NEILL, YO, AND I’M ABOUT T’DO SOMETHIN’ _SO FRIGGIN’ AWESOME_ THAT MY NAME WILL BE WRITTEN DOWN IN THE HISTORY BOOKS!”

Amanda herself almost tumbled off her broom as she heard this, an uneasy look on her face.

“What the fucking…ahem, what the _bloody_ fucking shit?”

“Akko?!” Diana gulped, hands almost slipping off the broom. She knew this only had one way of ending: badly.

“I WILL FLY ALL 20 LAPS, IN _LESS THAN TWO MINUTES_ , AND I’LL DO IT _LIKE THE FUCKIN’ ROCKSTAR I AM_. SO WATCH OUT, LUNA NOVA, O’NEILL’S COMIN’, AND SHE WON’T FUCKIN’ QUIT, Y’HERE ME? _Y’HERE ME???_ _TIA! FUCKING!_ **_FREYRE!!!_ **”

That’s what she was missing. Confidence. Drive. That daredevil attitude Amanda always displayed. That _power_ and _fury_ that made her so notorious. Akko pulled off that confident smirk, while Professor Nelson looked at her with outright befuddlement.

She kicked off the ground.

“ _HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-_ ”

* * *

“Uhhhhhnnn…”

“Oh, look, I think she’s coming to!”

What...what was going on? Where was she…?

Her eyes slowly flickered open, only to see…

“Jasminka?” Akko asked groggily. At that moment, she dimly remembered that it was _Lotte,_ not Jasminka, though she supposed it was just as well that she had called her that. Next to her was Const--Diana, giving a relieved sigh. It was clear the trio were in the nurse’s office, though nobody else seemed to be in the room that Akko could tell. “What happened?”

“You fell off your broom and landed head first on the ground.”

Akko blinked. “Shouldn’t I have broken my neck or something?”

“You were only a foot in the air.”

“And I got knocked out from _that_?”

“Professor Nelson thinks you fainted.”

“Oh.”

Akko licked her teeth, feeling an odd taste in her mouth.

“Is this…dirt?”

Lotte nervously shook her head. “Y-Yeah…you scraped part of the ground with your teeth.”

“ _Again??_ ”

“How many times is that now?” Diana asked. “I’m starting to think we should see a dentist about this.”

“I-I think I’m good…” Akko gulped. She hated dentists.

Across from them, a tall, thin woman with pitch black hair that grew down to her shoulders suddenly popped into the room without any of the girls having heard her walk in. She was in the typical Luna Nova teacher attire, but she wore an eyepatch over her left eye.

“Ahh, Miss O’Neil!” the nurse exclaimed in a noticeable Irish accent, “so good to see you returned to the land of the living!”

“T-The…the wha…” Akko whimpered. She didn’t remember this nurse, truth be told--she must’ve been new to the school. The nurse gave a shrill laugh, ruffling the poor patient’s hair.

“Just a little nursing humor, dear!” the older woman laughed. “And Miss Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger, fancy seeing you talking for once! Working through that anxiety, are we?”

Diana gulped, realizing she might’ve blown her cover by accident. She covered her mouth and stuttered out a pitiful “J-Ja…” to the nurse. “I-It’s vorking itz bezt, m-mein frau…”

Lotte smiled nervously is she heard Diana’s pitiful attempt at a German accent. A proud member of the Cavendish bloodline, reduced to nervously putting on a phony accent while blushing redder than a beat. Truly, humility was something Diana was becoming well acquainted with these past few days.

“Well then!” the nurse exclaimed, “I suppose you can take Miss O’Neill out to her dorm before her next class! Just try not to overtax her, alright? If she has another fainting spell, come right here!”

Suddenly, the woman pulled out a long, black wand, a blue hue glowing from the tip. She smiled a wide, toothy grin that would give even Sucy room for pause. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

Akko gulped, hurrying herself out of the bed. “T-Thank you, ma’am, h-hopefully this is all just a one time thing!” she stammered out, grabbing Diana and Lotte by their hands and pulling them out of the room.

“H-Hey, easy!” Lotte whimpered.

“Just keep walking, Jasminka,” Akko whispered, avoiding any eye contact with the nurse, who smiled eerily as she watched them go.

It only took them a short time to reach Amanda’s dorm, mostly due to how fast they were walking. Akko breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the doorknob, and…realized she was at the wrong door. Namely, her own dorm.

She blushed and turned to her friends. “I’m still not used to this, I guess...”

Diana sighed as she turned to Amanda’s dorm, holding the door open for the two of them.

“I don’t think any of us are going to get ‘used’ to this, Akko.”

“Least of all, me,” Lotte said, taking great care not to touch the door.

“It’s only three more days, Akko,” Diana said. “We can…we can manage until then, right?” Try as she might, even she felt unsure of that.

“Ugggghhh…” Akko sighed, flopping her head onto Amanda’s bed. She awkwardly turned away from the other two, her face firmly planted on the pillow.

Lotte tilted her head. “What’s the matter?”

Akko shook her head. “I don’t wanna say.”

“Are you sure?” Lotte asked.

Akko let out another groan in response.

“I mean, Akko, we can t-”

“Alright then,” Diana interrupted, sitting down beside the bed. “Wait it out however long you feel is necessary.”

Akko didn’t respond for a moment. Then suddenly, she bolted upright, giving a pout and crossing her arms.

“You always get me with that one!”

Diana gave a small chuckle. “Because you’re stubborn and do the opposite of what people tell you to do.”

“N-No I don’t!” Akko blushed.

“We’ll save my mountains of evidence to the contrary for another discussion,” Diana replied. “What's bothering you?”

Akko sighed. “I made Amanda look like a total idiot, didn’t I?”

Diana climbed closer to her girlfriend, looking into Akko’s eyes. “Hmm…perhaps, yes. Perhaps a bit more than what she usually does to herself.”

“That doesn’t help, y’know.”

“Well, even if it did,” Diana continued, “I’m sure she’d understand. Suffice to say, Amanda embarrasses herself a lot. Remember the broom race last year?”

A small smile crept over Akko’s face. “I still coulda beaten you at that one!”

“Nice try,” Diana snarked. “My point is, you have a few days before she’d feel the brunt of whatever attention this gets, which means you can easily alleviate it for her. And really, it’s not _that_ different from what Amanda usually does. Just a little more…well, Akko-ish, I guess.”

“…did you just turn my name into a word?” Akko asked.

“I might have,” Diana replied, a small smile growing on her face. “Not a problem, is it?”

Akko giggled, cheeks blushing light pink. “Not as long as it isn’t, y’know, to mean something bad or anything.”

“Hmm…” Diana paused. “Well, something being Akko-ish isn’t generally bad, I’d say. A bit excitable and impulsive, perhaps, but always with an endearing aspect to it. Even if you don’t realize it at first glance. It just wears you down after a while and, well…”

She grasped her hand over Akko’s without even thinking.

“You can’t help but appreciate it anyway.”

Akko blushed bright red. She looked at Diana’s smile, as firm and calm as ever. That was something Akko had noticed Diana doing a lot more as of late—smiling. It was...well, it was soothing. Pairing it with the infamously blunt and montone Constanze, though? A thousand times more adorable to see.

Before she knew it, Diana felt herself being tightly squeezed by two strong arms, as Akko pulled her into a hug.

“Diana, you’re the best!” Akko giggled.

“C-Crushing…m-me…” Diana whimpered.

“Oh, sorry!” Akko exclaimed, releasing her grip. “Forgot that Amanda has a little bit of muscle.”

While the two girlfriends flirted, Lotte awkwardly stood to the side, giving a wistful sigh. She took a seat on the bed opposite the one Akko was in, and simply rested her hands on her lap.

_Wish I knew what to say here…why am I so bad at talking?_

Suddenly, the door slammed open. Amanda barged right in, panting, her face red and dripping with sweat.

“Holy fuck, are you okay?!” she exclaimed.

“Never better!” Akko said, suddenly thrusting herself out of bed.

“Er, ya sure?” Amanda asked, confused. “That was a nasty fall you took.”

“As a matter of fact,” Diana said, “she apparently only knocked herself out. No concussion or anything. Seems your body is made of strong material.”

“I fucking hope it is,” Amanda sighed. “Anyways, Diana, I need to ask you someth--”

“What’s everyone else saying about what happened?” Akko asked, cutting Amanda off.

“Uh…I mean, I guess they think I had a nervous breakdown or somethin’?” Amanda replied. “Anyways, Dia--”

“Don’t worry Amanda, I can fix it! I have the _perfect_ plan!” Akko exclaimed. Suddenly, she dashed out the door, leaving everyone in the room befuddled.

“A-Akko, not again!” Lotte whimpered, running off in pursuit. Diana simply sat back, blinking in confusion.

Amanda’s eye twitched for a moment. She wasn’t bothered at being called crazy by people. In fact, she kinda laughed it off whenever it was brought up to her in the past. But she knew that whatever Akko was thinking, it could only end in chaos. And she had a bad idea of what it was gonna be…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we return! Sorry for the wait, we had issues with developing this chapter, plus IRL stuff got in the way. But, it's here, hope ya like the gay, and be ready for Chapter 4!-Diana1969


	4. Dates Are For Chumps

“So…” Amanda mumbled. She had pulled up a seat next to the bed Diana was sitting on, twiddling her thumbs as she thought of what to say.

“Are you alright, O’Neill?” Diana asked, confused. “You usually don’t hesitate to ask me for favors.”

“Well…this one is a bit more complicated than that…” Amanda sighed.

“O’Neill, I’m not helping you put enchanted gum on Professor Babcock’s chair.”

“What? No, no, that’s not it!” Amanda huffed. “I told you, that was a whole misunderstanding, I had _nothing_ to do with that! And what I’m asking for is something more…personal.”

Diana gave a suspicious glance at her American counterpart. While she might’ve been a bit harsh, Amanda wasn’t the kind of person one was inclined to put too much trust in. Still, if she was being _this_ hesitant about it…

“Well then, I apologize if I’m being rude. Please, tell me what you need.”

Amanda gulped.

_Damn it, why am I this nervous about telling her? I’m NEVER nervous about shit!_

“I, uh…wanted to get a thing for Hannah…a-a necklace…”

Diana’s eyes suddenly widened. She gave a small grin. “Oh?” 

A noticeable blush grew on Amanda’s cheeks.

“Don’t look at me like that…”

Diana chuckled. “Amanda, really, I think it’s nice! You and Hannah make a nice couple, I’m glad to see you wanting to get her a gift.”

“Well…here’s the thing…” Amanda said.

Diana’s grin slowly disappeared. 

_Oh dear,_ she thought.

“…there’s a ‘thing’ with this?”

“Well, I don’t have the money…and I saw the perfect one, I just _know_ I need to get it for her. It’s just the right color that matches her eyes and shit. And, well, call me a creature of habit, but my plan was to snatch it and… _hopefully_ not get caught, y’know?”

“Ah yes, I can see where this is going,” Diana said with a sigh. “You wanted to make sure it was okay to steal it while you were in my body, yes?”

Amanda’s blush grew even deeper, and she nodded. “So...can you help?”

Diana just gave her a flat stare.

“...No, huh?”

“Oh, absolutely not.”

Amanda groaned, to which Diana simply sighed in response.

“O’Neill, I think you know very well that a descendant of one of the Nines getting her face plastered on a newspaper because she stole a necklace…well, to be blunt, it would be disastrous. I can practically picture what it would look like in _The Daily Mail_ : “Witch Heiress and So-Called World Savior Diana Cavendish Found with Butch Haircut, Stealing Necklaces. Says Local MP: ‘Time to bring back burning.’”

Amanda grimaced. Yeah, that sounded...bad.

“You think about this sort of thing a lot, don’t you?” she said sheepishly.

“More than you know,” Diana said solemnly. “In any case, our incident with the Museum of Magic was quite enough criminal behavior for my taste. So I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you to do this.”

Amanda slouched, tucked her hands underneath her chin, and took in a long breath.

“What if I promised you that I wouldn’t get caught?”

Diana sighed again. It appeared that she would have to draw out the big guns.

“Do you seriously think Hannah would be alright with you doing such a thing?” Diana replied. “Not to mention, you’re not exactly the master thief that you think you are. Need I remind you that when we _both_ went to steal the Timebreaker Gladius during the Horologium incident, _you_ were the one who tripped the alarm?”

Amanda didn’t immediately respond. Diana, while blunt, wasn’t wrong. Instead, Amanda just shook her head.

“No…”

Diana crossed her arms. “I admire your goal, O’Neill, but I cannot condone your methods. I apologize for being so blunt, but I’m only doing it because I care. If you want, I’m sure I can h--”

“No.”

Diana looked confused by Amanda’s reply. “…c-come again?”

Amanda got up from her chair and sighed. “Look, I appreciate the sentiment, but this _has_ to be just me doing this. It’s _my_ gift for her, I wanna show her that _I_ can be romantic all on my own. You understand?”

Diana groaned. “I understand your feelings, but…this is all rather bullheaded, don’t you think?”

Amanda smirked. “Hey, ‘bullheaded’ is one of my best features.”

Diana rolled her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She had no doubt that she would need an aspirin today, and probably sooner rather than later.

“You’re not stealing a necklace for Hannah. That’s my final word on the subject, and if you continue to persist in this foolishness, then I will have no choice but to stop you…”

Diana got to her feet and pulled out her wand. One might have thought that Constanze’s size would have undercut the force of her statement, but somehow she still managed to project quite a bit of menace from the small frame.

“...with force, if necessary.”

For a moment, neither said anything, both silently glaring at each other. Then Amanda sighed, averting her eyes.

“Fine, fine, whatever…” she grumbled. “I’ll just figure out a different way to get it. A _legal_ way.”

“That would be greatly preferred, thank you,” Diana nodded.

Amanda grumbled some more. This had not gone according to plan. Maybe if she thought about it, she could find a way to get the necklace. Maybe she just needed some outside help. Maybe she could scrounge up some money somewhere. Maybe…

“Well, thanks for the talk, Cavendish,” Amanda said, making her way out of the room. Diana noticed a hint of sarcasm to her voice, though oddly not as barbed as usual. “Don’t expect me to get mushy like that again.”

“Not expecting it at all, O’Neill,” Diana replied. As Amanda made her way out, Diana couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of fascination towards the girl. Sure, they’d gotten quite terse with one another, but Amanda opening up just a bit was a welcome sight, rare as it was.

 _She’s definitely going to get mushier by the end of the week,_ she thought to herself with a chuckle.

* * *

Akko barrelled through the hallway, a sharp gust of wind cutting through the air as she rushed to the dining area. Lotte wasn’t far behind, miraculously managing to keep pace with her friend’s breakneck pace.

“Akk--A-Amanda, you need to stop, now!” Lotte whimpered, struggling to stay in-character.

“Never!” Akko exclaimed. “I have an idea for how to fix this mess, and I know just who to help me with it!”

Lotte sighed, not giving up the chase.

_Good grief…_

Akko burst into the cafeteria and made a run for her friends’ table. She could see Hannah awkwardly spooning some soup into her mouth, Sucy twirling her wand around (possibly contemplating a trick on Hannah?), and Barbara engaging in idle chit chat with Jasminka. Surprisingly, there was no sign of Constanze.

“Girls, girls!” Akko exclaimed, “I’ve got an amazing ide--AUGH!”

Suddenly, Lotte crashed into Akko, and like dominoes they both crashed into the table, throwing plates and sporks everywhere…and all over their friends’ faces.

“Whyyyyyyyyy…” Hannah whined, her face splattered with cold soup.

Sucy let out a smug chuckle, wiping some potato wedges off her chest. “Guess that saved me the effort of enchanting it.”

“Manbavaran, if I were not a witch of class, I would beat you senseless.”

Barbara sighed, silently thankful that she had already finished eating. She reached for a napkin and started dabbing at Hannah’s face to clean her off. Jasminka squirmed, picking up a spork that was knocked onto the floor.

“Akko, no offense, but what tomfoolery are you getting into _now_?” Barbara asked, a bit more blunt than usual.

Akko blushed as she sat herself upright. Lotte stood right next to her, hands clasped over her mouth and a blush over her cheeks.

“So, I made Amanda look like an idiot outside and everyone thinks she’s gone crazy, yeah?” Akko said.

“Akko, she doesn’t really care,” Jasminka replied. “Trust me, Amanda isn’t someone who’s concerned with her school reputation.”

“But I made her look super dumb!” Akko exclaimed. “So, that means I gotta make her look better! Or, well, y’know, as better as she _can_ look.”

“Watch your tone about my girlfriend, Kagari,” Hannah grumbled.

“And _that’s_ where my idea comes into play!” Akko giggled, disregarding Hannah. Lotte gave another exhausted sigh.

“…what are you planning, Akko?” Barbara asked.

“Does it involve me cleaning up the body?” Sucy asked.

“What? No, no!” Akko countered. “I gotta make Amanda look like she’s having a romantic date with Hannah so that Wangari and her girls can give good publicity to her!”

Jasminka gulped. She knew where this was going.

“Good grief…” Lotte muttered again. “Akko, I’m not sure this would, y’know, work?”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Akko replied. “Wangari follows me and Diana around and takes photos of us like we’re the Royal Family. And look how people aren’t treating me as bad as they used to!”

“Well, you also kinda saved the world from a magic death missile,” Sucy muttered.

“Okay, so it’s not the _entire_ reason,” Akko continued, “but it’d still work! Also, I mean, wouldn’t people be suspicious of Amanda not really doing anything with her girlfriend or something?”

Sucy paused and thought it over.

“You’re not entirely wrong, I guess. But you do realize you’re not taking a pretty big detail into account, right?”

“And what would that be?”

Sucy gestured towards Jasminka. The poor girl was blushing beet red just thinking the scenario over.

“Ohhh…” Akko said. Once again, her impulsive mind got the better of her.

“Look, Akko,” Hannah said, “I understand trying to preserve mine and Amanda’s reputation, but with this body swap situation...it’s a bit complicated. I’d suggest we wait it out and allowing the gossip to die down, maybe draw less att--”

“I-I’ll do it!”

“Wait, what?”

Jasminka got up from her seat and walked over to Akko’s side, arms behind her back. “I, uh, think it’d be cute, y’know? I don’t really have much to do right now anyways, might as well go along with it, right?”

Akko let out a squeal of excitement and suddenly hugged Jasminka tight. “I knew I could count on you!”

Jasminka blushed again, feeling her spine crunched a tiny bit.

Hannah groaned. It was weird seeing these two in her and her girlfriend’s bodies, getting this close together. Not _intimate_ , thank goodness, but still weird. Honestly, she couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful about it.

“Fine, but no kissing, alright? This is all _pretend_ , remember. You’re only _pretending_ to be me and Amanda.”

“Yes ma’am!” Akko cheerily replied. “I’d never kiss anyone anyways!”

“…not even Diana?” Barbara asked.

“I-I’m still working on that!” Akko huffed. “C-C’mon, let’s go Jasminka…”

As the two walked out of the room, Lotte awkwardly took a seat by the table. She was fairly exhausted, all that running around having tired her out. Still, there was something rather pressing on her mind, something she really needed to talk over with someone...

“Hey uh, Sucy?” she asked.

“What’s up?” Sucy replied.

“Um…c-can we talk in private for a bit?”

Sucy blinked a couple of times before responding. Usually, a talk in private with Lotte was for something serious.

“Sure.”

The two started to make their way out of the room. Lotte gave another sigh and shook her head.

_Everything feels different…_

* * *

Constanze was walking alone in the hallway, a textbook clutched closely to her chest. She had left lunch earlier than everyone else, ostensibly to work on her machinery some more. The school was littered with a good number of secret passageways to her lair—all she had to do was find the most convenient one.

 _Let’s just hope Barbara has enough perfume to mask the smell of WD40,_ she thought to herself. She came around a corner and was about to tap on a brick to enter her lair, when a voice called out to her.

“Hey, Barbara?”

Constanze felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, having hoped to go the rest of the day _without_ talking to anyone. Barbara usually had about three people or so she would even talk to at a given time, so she hardly ever left their friend circle. But now, without Jasminka to assist, she had to go at it _alone_ . The horror, the absolute _horror._

Doing her best to shut out any and all calamitous thoughts, the German witch clutched her book tighter as she turned around to see who the intruder was.

“Um…Babs, you alright?” Avery asked. “I just needed to talk for a moment.”

 _Scheiße!_ Constanze thought to herself. _I need to find a way out of this…_

She coughed, thinking back to an earlier feint Barbara had pulled the previous day. “A-Allergies,” she mumbled, before letting out a pitiful “A-Achoo!”. Just saying the words filled her with agony, like she was being stabbed by tiny needles all through her body.

“I see…” Avery sighed. “Well…can I ask you about something? I won’t take up much of your time, I promise.”

 _Damn it…_ Constanze thought. _Okay, okay, let’s uh…just hear her out. You pretend to pay attention to Amanda anyway, it’s not like this’ll be much different._

She gave a nod and a grunt.

“Okay, so…” Avery began, leaning against the wall, “I couldn’t help but notice that your, uh…friends have been acting a bit weird. Kagari, O’Neill, even Cavendish seems a bit off…did something happen after the Noir Rod incident?”

 _That’s a yes/no question_ , Constanze thought. She responded accordingly, shaking her head and making a quiet “uh-uh” sound.

“I see…guess I’m just overthinking it, eh?” Avery sighed. She sounded…sad? She certainly didn’t sound happy. A brief silence came between them. Constanze slowly tried to take a step forward before Avery placed a hand on her shoulder.

 _Nonononononono physical contact, nooooooo…_ Constanze internally screamed.

“I just wanted to say, uh…” Avery continued, “I’m sorry about not being around enough anymore.”

_…what is she talking about?_

“Heh…it’s kinda funny, in a weird way I guess…I was always the more ambitious of the two of us, growing up. Y’know, me the wannabe singer, you the little bookworm…but you’re the one who lucked out in being friends with the power couple of the school. I guess I just kinda miss how it was when we were kids, y’know?”

Constanze blushed. She was confused by these comments. She knew very little about Avery beyond that A: she was Canadian, B: she played music, and C: Constanze had loaned her projector to one of Avery’s roommates a couple times ( _Mary, was it?_ ). Being thrown into a conversation was scary enough. Being thrown into a conversation with a _lot_ of history behind it? Absolutely mortifying.

“I-I see…” she mumbled, her voice so low and hoarse that it could barely be deciphered.

“Gosh, I’m just dumping a lot on ya, eh?” Avery nervously chuckled. “Well…no use getting upset about it, I guess. Friends drift apart, after all…just, y’know, expected family would bond us a bit closer.”

 _…ohhhhhhh_ Constanze realized. It all seemed clear now. Avery wasn’t just a friend of Barbara’s…she was a _relative_ too.

“Anyways,” Avery continued, “I really should be going to my dorm. Blair wants me to model for a panting. I know you don’t talk to her or Mary much, but they’re…interesting people. I like them, at least.” She gave an awkward chuckle as she took a step away from Constanze.

“Talk later, cousin, okay?”

Constanze didn’t know what she was feeling right now. Her knees were shaking, her hands trembling, but most importantly, her heart felt…warm. Was that what one called it? Warm? She barely knew this girl, but she immediately could tell a lot about her…and she wasn’t going to let her leave while feeling down.

_…don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t FUCK I’M DOING IT._

Before Avery could leave, Constanze grabbed a hold of her arm and gave a tug. The Canadian witch gasped, confused by the sudden yank.

“Barbara, what the heck?!” she exclaimed. “Something the matter?”

Constanze took in a deep breath. The feeling of pins on her skin only got worse, but she tried to fight it off.

“You…are…cool…” she said, giving Avery’s hand an awkward shake. “Okay?”

Avery paused. “Uh…thank you…”

She gently took her hand out of Constanze’s grasp and started to walk away.

“Hey, why don’t you let me know when you’re free some time?” she said as she left. “We can do lunch.”

Constanze nodded and waved as she watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, she released a breath she had been holding.

 _Oh my God, that was_ ** _awful_** , she thought to herself. _I’m going to have to tell Barbara every single thing she said to me, it’s going to be HELL!_

She sighed, taking a moment to find the right brick again. Once she did, she tapped it, opening up the entrance to her lair.

 _They are_ SO _lucky I’m this nice,_ she thought as she walked in. _Honestly, I must deserve some kind of award for this._

Still, in the end, part of her felt…nice, being able to help just a bit.

_But I’m not going to do it again._

* * *

“So…”

Akko awkwardly twiddled her thumbs as she sat at a table in the library. Jasminka sat across from her, neither one of them making eye contact. A bead of sweat fell from Akko’s cheek as her thumbs twiddled faster. This anxiety was killing her.

“We…what _do_ we talk about?” Akko asked.

“Do we talk about what Amanda and Hannah normally talk about?” Jasminka asked in response.

“But what do they even talk about beyond flirting all the time at lunch?” Akko replied. “We need to try and get a _genuine_ Hamanda conversation going until Wangari gets here!”

“...did you just give Amanda and Hannah’s relationship a ship name?”

Akko nodded. “I do that for everyone!”

Jasminka was, admittedly, not surprised. Another pause came between the two girls as they struggled to figure out where to go with this.

“So…um…gay stuff? Suits? U-Uh…g-go sports teams?” Jasminka asked, her voice faltering.

Akko slammed her head onto the table with a long, dramatic sigh.

“Gaaaaaaah...”

“They must have common interests,” said Jasminka. “What do they like to do together?”

“You would know better than I would!” said Akko as she pulled her head back up. “She’s _your_ roommate.”

“Hmm…” said Jasminka, thinking. “Well actually, Hannah and I _do_ bake together sometimes…”

“Ooh, that’s good!” Akko said excitedly. “Let's use that!”

“Okay,” said Jasminka.

Clearing her throat, she began to speak up a bit.

“Remember that soufflé we made the other day?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, I remember that!” said Akko with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “Good times, good times!”

Several nearby students fiercely shushed her—it _was_ a library, after all.

“Sorry,” Akko said sheepishly.

“Oh, that was good,” whispered Jasminka. “Amanda does stuff like that _all_ the time.”

“Thanks!” whispered Akko in reply. “So…do you want to try baking anything else?”

“Ooh, yes!” said Jasminka. “I saw this lovely danish the other day at a cafe, a good Viennese style that I _really_ wanna try my hand at making! I just need the right icing for it to even get it done, but one of these days, just you wait!”

She continued to chatter on, Akko just letting her go to her heart’s content. She was perfectly fine letting Jasminka take the lead here—it took a load off her shoulders. Besides, she didn’t get much opportunity to talk with Jasminka. It was…nice.

“One of these days, I really should show you how to make ponchiki!” Jasminka continued. “It’s like a Russian doughnut, you’d definitely love it!”

“Oh?” Akko smirked, slipping into her Amanda mask. “Well, I oughta show you how to make, uh…hot dogs or somethin’!”

Jasminka laughed. “I think I know a few more recipes than you… _Amanda_.”

“Oh yeah?” Akko teased. “I’m Amanda O’Neill, I’m an All-American All-Star! If you cut me, I’d just bleed bacon bits!”

Jasminka laughed again, though to be fair, it wasn’t hard to get her to start. But Akko’s impression of Amanda…well, it was _bad_ . _Atrocious_ , even. And yet, Jasminka not only didn’t have the heart to tell Akko that it was bad, she found herself enjoying it all the same.

“Oh, there’s this pie shop somewhere in Blytonbury, I _really_ wanna go! You think you can take me?”

“Uh…pie shop?” Akko asked. “Uh, sure, anytime!”

Jasminka giggled and hushed her voice into a quiet whisper. “Just so you know, Akko, I really meant that.”

Akko smiled and hushed her voice in turn. “I’ll bring Diana along, I’m sure she’d love it!”

Jasminka nodded, her smile growing ever brighter. “Why haven’t we hung out more often?”

“Beats me!” Akko shrugged.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past the two girls. Before Akko could even react, Wangari was holding a microphone right in front of her face, her signature bright grin shining in front of them.

“Might I interest you girls in a short little excursion outside of the library?” Wangari asked. “Can’t exactly be _theatrical_ in this place, y’know?”

“Uh…” Akko replied, trying to switch gears back into Amanda mode. “Like, sure dude, _totally_.”

Jasminka covered her mouth and hid a small giggle. Akko’s “American” accent was still a travesty.

 _Okay Jasminka, you’ve been doing decently so far…now you gotta_ **_really_ ** _act like Hannah!_

As the girls walked out, Joanna and Kimberly were right across from them. Joanna was waving her camera around, eager for the money shot.

“C’mon, let’s hurry this up!” she exclaimed. “The paper needs its weekly dose of gay!”

“Akko’s goose chase yesterday has made us lose quality content,” Kimberly said in a dry monotone. “We must give our audience what they want.”

Wangari rolled her eyes. “Look, girls, you can’t just _rush_ it! That’s why I’m the interviewer, ya gotta ease the subject in and make ‘em feel welcome!”

“And this time, no getting sidetracked on a snipe hunt because our school’s world saviors decide they’re _too good_ for us,” Joanna sighed, a rather disgusted look on her face. Akko had a feeling this had something to do with Amanda and Sucy’s encounter with the girls the day before.

Jasminka coughed and, taking a breath through her nose, began to get into character.

“Look dears, it’s all good!” she said in a…surprisingly clear English accent? “Me and Amanda would _love_ to take a few photos for you!”

“Uh…yeah, dudes! Me and the missus here would _love_ to shower you gals with our relationship an’ stuff,” Akko said.

Joanna blinked. Something about “Amanda’s” speech felt off. Wangari didn’t seem to notice, though.

“Well alright!” the Kenyan witch exclaimed.

Joanna readied her camera while Kimberly leaned in, ready to take notes.

“So, what’s up with you two today?” Wangari asked them. “Just gals bein’ pals?”

“Pals? Pfft! We’re just a bunch of ragin’ homosexuals here!” Akko boasted, puffing her chest out.

Jasminka grinned sheepishly and nodded. “What my partner means is, we were just having a chat in the library after lunch. Nothing _too_ fancy.”

“Ohh, I see,” Wangari chuckled. “Playing coy, I take it?”

“Oh no, not at all!” Jasminka protested, but the journalist trio wasn’t having any of it.

“C’mon, you think we were born yesterday?” asked Joanna.

“Well, we did fall for Akko and Diana’s ruse yesterday…” said Kimberly.

“Kim, I swear to God…”

“A journalist speaks the truth, Jo.”

“And my fist is gonna just…speak some violence or…something metaphorical like that!”

“GIRLS!” Wangari shouted, causing her two colleagues to snap to attention. “Can we _please_ focus?”

“Sorry,” said the two of them.

“ _Anyways_ ,” Wangari continued, “not gonna go too in-depth with the questions or anything. How’s our very own member of the world-saving septet handling her broom accident?”

Akko gulped. “Well, y’know, it wasn’t really anything serious. Just me having a bit of stress release and uh, taking it out the wrong way.”

“Yes, yes!” Jasminka nodded along. She awkwardly grabbed at Akko’s arm, just above her elbow. She could have held her hand, but that felt...wrong.

“She’s been stressing over her studies, poor thing! She’s become quite jealous of Atsuko Kagari’s improvements, you know!”

“Wait, _Akko_ is improving in class?” Joanna asked.

“U-Uh, yeah!” Akko blushed. “She’s, like, so totally better now, you shoulda been there in Finnelan’s class yesterday! All about that Hegelian Diorama!”

“Dialectic,” Jasminka corrected.

“That’s what I said!” Akko protested.

Wangari blinked. A sudden idea came to her.

“Atsuko Kagari, a success story for any aspiring student on campus who might be struggling with grades…that’d be a hell of a scoop!”

Akko balked at this sudden change of course. “H-Hey, I thought you were doing a story on us, yeah?”

“Oh, I’m not forgettin’ you girls!” Wangari smiled. “Kimberly’s got the notes already, all we really need are some photos now!”

“Scooch together now, girls!” Joanna said, beaming. “We’ve gotta get a good one! Luna Nova Power Numero Dos, that’s you girls!”

Just as Akko had hoped, the final part of her plan was coming through. The final, and most anxiety inducing, part of the plan. Akko and Jasminka inched together as instructed, both putting an arm around the other’s shoulder.

“Perfect!” said Joanna. “Smile!”

They both gave the best smiles they could muster under the circumstances, and Akko, on the spur of the moment, flashed a finger gun at the camera. Jasminka wrinkled her nose. She felt a sneeze coming on. Always at the worst of times. As she let out a tiny little “Achoo!”, there was a flash as the camera went off.

“Score one for the free press!” Wangari said with triumph.

“Um, Wangari, I dunno about this one…” said Joanna hesitantly, but Wangari ignored her.

“Let’s put this baby to bed!” she exclaimed, and hurried down the hall. Joanna and Kimberly shared a shrug before rushing after her.

Akko breathed a sigh of relief.

“God, I thought I was gonna _die_!” she exclaimed.

The two were silent for a moment, and then Akko spoke up again.

“Hey uh, Jasminka?”

“Yeah, Akko?”

“How did you…y’know, the uh…accent?”

“Oh, that? Well…I told you I wanted to be headmistress one day, right?”

“Wait, you do?”

Jasminka sighed. “This is why we really should hang out more.”

“This is our first step, but… _headmistress?_ ”

“Maybe! I’m still young, still thinking. But uh, long story short, I felt kind of embarrassed about my accent…thick Russian accent in an English school and stuff, y’know? So I kinda tried learning how to do an English one and…well, I guess it comes in handy when I need it to!”

Akko blinked. She was surprised. Jasminka had always been one of the more quiet and laid back members of their little friend group. Hearing about her being _embarrassed_ was hard for Akko to wrap her head around.

“Uh…anything else I should know about you?” Akko asked.

“Well…my village has a bunch of huts mounted on chicken legs.”

“Aaaand I think you’ve lost me,” Akko awkwardly sighed.

Jasminka chuckled. “One of these days, I’ve really gotta show you Baba Yaga’s Book of Russian Witchcraft History, you might get a kick out of it. Really different stuff than what they have here.”

“Heh, I’ll take your word for it…” Akko said. “Either way, I think we’ve done good here! Amanda’s reputation is saved!”

“Funny you should say that...”

Akko and Jasminka whirled around to see Diana standing there, her face deadly serious.

“T-This isn’t what it looks like!” Akko whimpered.

“Akko, I know that,” Diana sighed. “I suppose I might as well just rip the bandage off now…We need to talk. About Amanda.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, just to note, some of the references here are actually related to the Chamber of Time game. Diana and Amanda trying to steal something from a museum is part of a sidequest there, as is little details like Avery being interested in music and Jasminka wanting to be headmistress (something SilverSupa used in one of their fics too). As for other things, well, that's my own headcanon. I'd noticed a few comments pointing to Avery's presence in the past few chapters, and we decided to give her a bigger presence for this one. Also, Jasminka's comment about huts with chicken legs is actually a reference to the old Slavic folktales of Baba Yaga (who, uh, lived in a hut with giant chicken legs, heh). We tried hard to give Jasminka some more screentime here, she's a character who really deserves more than what the anime gave her. Anyways, I really hope this is good! We're getting a bit of drama here now, stay tuned where this goes!-Diana1969


	5. Subterfuge Central

“We need to talk about Akko…”

Lotte  was  slouched against Sucy’s bed, her arms crossed on top of her knees. She made no eye contact with her friend, instead simply looking at the ground, looking at her…well, Jasminka’s body…looking at anything else.

Sucy gave a blank stare. “Is she doing anything in particular?”

Lotte shook her head. “No, no, it’s more like…um…”

“ Yes ?”

Lotte sighed. “If I said it, I’d just sound like a jerk.”

Sucy paused. Lotte was hardly the type to sound like a jerk. Hell, Sucy didn’t think Lotte was capable of hating things, certainly nothing to do with Akko.  She was just too damn sweet to be a jerk.

She scooted closer to Lotte and crossed her legs on top of the bed. “I know you pretty well. Being a jerk is the last thing you’d ever do to anyone, especially Akko."

The Finnish girl looked at Sucy for a moment. Sure, those were the words of one of her closest friends…but they were in Akko’s voice. It was going to be harder to handle this.

“I guess uh…I-I guess I just…I feel like something’s changed…”

“Like…changed good, changed bad?”

“A bit of both…”

Sucy thought it over. “Well, we haven’t done anything  _ too _ bad lately. Haven’t raised the dead or broken time again. Guess we peaked with saving the world.”

Lotte sighed again. “That’s not what I mean…”

Sucy blinked. Her face was emotionless as usual, but that didn’t hide her concern for Lotte.  _ Something _ was clearly wrong. She thought for a moment about what else might’ve changed in their group’s dynamic. They still hung out a lot, they just had more friends to hang out with. Lotte and Barbara attended a book club, for crying out loud!

_ Something that’s different…wait… _

“It’s about Diana, isn’t it?”

Lotte tensed up. Sucy had found what she was looking for.

“Y-Yeah…”

“You’re not, like…jealous of her and Akko, are you?”

Lotte’s face turned red. “N-No, no! Not in a million years!”

Sucy giggled. “I mean, that’s a relief. I don’t like love triangles.”

“I-It’s not a love triangle!” Lotte meekly protested. “It’s more…I feel like I’m not as close to Akko as I used to be, a-and I guess I feel guilty for thinking that? Y-You know what I mean?”

Sucy thought it over for a moment. True, Akko had been hanging around Diana a lot more. They’d been doing things in Blytonbury, they’d been studying, they were  _ the _ hot topic for school gossip.  Of course , Sucy didn’t pay much attention to it beyond feeling happy for  Akko… not that she’d ever say it out loud.

“I guess,” Sucy said. “I just don’t really feel the same way.”

Lotte laid her head against the bed, sighing once more in defeat. “I’m crazy then, aren’t I?”

Sucy scooted closer. “There are a lot of words I could use to describe you, but crazy isn’t one of them.”

“T-Then what’s wrong with me?” Lotte sniffled. A tear ran down her cheek. “Something  _ has _ to be wrong with me, r-right?”

“Lotte…”

“I-I just…I haven’t really had  _ friends _ until now, y-y’know? And I…I-I don’t wanna lose that…I-I don’t w-”

Suddenly, Lotte paused. Sucy had lightly gripped her shoulder. A rare, but necessary, gesture.

“You’re doing that thing again where your thoughts race too much,” Sucy said. “Take a breath, okay?”

Lotte nodded, sniffling once again. She slowed her breathing and  relaxed . The whole time, Sucy kept her hand on Lotte’s shoulder, not letting go. Lotte didn’t know how to describe it, but it felt oddly comforting.

“You good?” Sucy asked.

Lotte nodded again. “Y-Yeah…k-kinda…”

“Alright, well,” Sucy continued, “I think you’re just adjusting to how our whole group dynamic’s been changing. It happens. We haven’t been planted here like mushrooms - we can still change . You’ve got your deal, Akko’s got hers, I’ve got mine…she’d never stop being friends with you even then. People do different things, but that doesn’t mean we’ll abandon each other.”

“Y-You sure?”

Sucy nodded. She took a tissue out from her pocket and handed it to Lotte. “It’s  _ Akko _ . She’s dumb and clingy. Even  _ I _ can’t shake her off.”

Lotte winced as she wiped her eyes. Slowly, a smile formed on her lips. A meek one, sure, but…no, Sucy was right.

“Heh…”

“What’s funny?” Sucy asked.

“Well,” Lotte replied, “it’s just…for someone who doesn’t like talking to people, you’re good at gauging them.”

Sucy smirked. “I have a  _ loooooot _ of adopted siblings, Lotte. You pick up a few things whether you feel like it or not.  Don’t ever tell anyone, though.”

Lotte chuckled. Slowly, she got off the bed, stretching her back. “Thanks for your help.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Sucy replied, following her.

“No, no, I should!” Lotte smiled. “You’re pretty nice around me, y’know?”

“Debatable. I  _ did _ almost get you and Akko fed to a cockatrice once.”

“Heh…” Lotte winced  again . “You know what I mean. How about we head back to the cafet--”

Suddenly, a knock came through the door. Lotte and Sucy glanced at each other for a moment, trading confused looks. Sucy walked over and turned the knob. Akko, Diana, and Jasminka immediately piled inside,  bowling Sucy aside .

“I do apologize for the inconvenience, but we have to stage an impromptu meeting,” Diana said. “We’ll need to fill Constanze and Barbara in on this as soon as is possible.”

“…hello to you too, Cavendish,” Sucy bluntly replied. “What’s the meeting about?”

“Amanda’s up to no good again,” Akko said.

“Ah, so a day that ends in ‘y’,” Sucy snarked.

“…wait but…Sucy, all days end in ‘y’!” Akko replied.

Sucy facepalmed. Diana groaned. Jasminka and Lotte both gave an awkward chuckle.

_ Well, at least some things never change… _ Lotte thought to herself.

* * *

Constanze scribbled on her notepad, writing down a scattering of words and designs. As per usual, she was obsessively  designing  whatever creations came to mind, ideas pouring out like a waterfall.  Try as she might, she could never  seem to properly voice these ideas on anything other than paper.

The title of this page in particular was a blast from the past:  _ Grand Charion 2.0. _ A return to an old favorite, now upgraded with whatever new additions Constanze could think of.

_ Let's see…get at least enough room for three people…should I make it split up like Voltron? Amanda's probably gonna want cupholders…gah, I'm making this sound more like a car than a robot…but it'll still be pretty cool… _

A Stanbot approached Constanze as she wrote, carrying a red pencil sharpener in its stubby semi-hands.

"Miss Constanze," the Stanbot began, "you seem to be preoccupied. Shall I fetch you a beverage?"

Constanze turned to the robot, delicately  took the pencil sharpener, and shook her head. She could do this all day if she felt like it.

"Very well then," the Stanbot replied, walking away. This was about the only kind of conversation Constanze tolerated in her workshop. Who needed people when you had robots?

And yet, as she broke from her design to sharpen her pencil, a thought suddenly entered her head--that encounter from earlier with Avery. The tone of sadness in that girl's voice...something about that tone had made Constanze  _ talk  _ to her.  _ Comfort _ her. Constanze wasn't  cruel , no, but she hated  overt emotional displays. She still hated crying in front of her friends the day of the bodyswap.

_ It was only a one-off thing, _ she thought to herself.  _ You can just sit and focus on your passions until dinner. _

She finished sharpening her pencil and turned back to her notepad. She placed the graphite on the paper…and froze. Ideas that had earlier been drawn up and repeatedly edited with gusto now refused to come out.

She tried drawing a line, hoping that would help. Sometimes a small, formless drawing could be given shape, right? But even this remained formless. All the while, that same encounter played out in Constanze's head again.

_ Why did I have to talk to her? Damn it, I can be generous, but I didn't have to talk! I didn't have to…no, maybe I did. She was upset, I had no choice. Damn Amanda and her spell. But…do I just leave her alone? _

She thought back once again. Avery had mentioned something to Constanze about lunch, right? No date to it at all. With any luck, Constanze could leave it to be Barbara's problem. Yet, she had a funny feeling about that.

If Avery was that beaten up over Barbara…something had to have happened, right?

She turned to one side of her workshop. It felt empty. Constanze liked empty most of the time…but maybe today, she could afford a little less empty. Maybe…maybe she didn't have to leave this dilemma to fate.

_ …I need to take her up on her offer _ , Constanze suddenly realized. She hated this realization. She knew what this would entail. An awkward half hour or so where she'd  _ have _ to pretend to be Barbara,  _ have _ to talk despite her anxiety,  _ have _ to engage with someone she barely knew…but goddamn it, that girl looked so. Damn.  _ Sad _ .

Constanze took in a deep breath. Finding a new page of paper, her pencil sprung to life once again.

_ I can't go it alone _ she thought to herself. She'd need help. And of course, she knew just who to ask.

_ Operation: Triple Parker Masquerade. _

* * *

Amanda walked through the halls with a slouch to her posture, barely paying attention to what was going on around her. She  was  angry, but not at anything specific. Well, okay,  _ maybe _ it was kind of specific. She knew there was a point to what Diana had said, loathe as she was to admit it…but that point just  _ pissed _ her off.

_ I swear to the Nines, that Cavendish…maybe I should listen to her…maybe it’ll still be there next week, right? Nah, someone else might buy it by then…there’s got to be another way to get that damn necklace… _

As she rounded a corner, she came across three girls talking amongst each other. One was a tall  (even compared to Amanda),  lanky girl with long red hair,  who was  hunched over awkwardly. Next to her was a brown haired girl with a pale complexion, and a dirty blonde with a hairdo Amanda thought was downright ridiculous, a pompadour cut that just screamed “Look at me, I’m fancy”, carried with a sneer that made Amanda want to vomit.

_ Great, another fucking prep. _

Suddenly, the blonde turned to Amanda’s direction, and huffed over to her. Amanda sighed.

_ I swear to god, not this shit again. _

“Bonjour…Cavendish…” the blonde snorted, her voice terse and haughty.

Amanda rolled her eyes.  _ Great, she’s French. Even better. _

“You  _ do  _ recall who I am,  I’m sure ?” the blonde asked.

Amanda could  barely  remember half of the people in school—she could hardly  be expected  to remember whoever this French girl was. So, in a typical Amanda fashion, she took the first impulsive thought she could think of doing: say something sarcastic.

“You’re that girl who eats snails, I’m assuming?” Amanda said.

Suddenly, the blonde’s eye twitched.

“You…you dare  _ MOCK _ my country… _ MY _ homeland…you English Sac À Merde, I out to cut your head off for such insolence!”

And suddenly, much to the horror of the girl’s friends, she began launching into a rant full of colorful French  curses  that, despite nobody there quite knowing what she was saying, clearly held a lot of venom. Amanda had to stifle a laugh-- she couldn’t help but find this both amusing and concerning.

“Chloe, Chloe!” the other two girls exclaimed, running to their friend’s side. The redhead pulled her back a few steps, while the brown haired girl nervously coughed in front of Amanda.

“M-Many apologies, Fräulein Cavendish…” she whimpered. “I don’t know if you remember me any? I’m Elfriede. Er, this is Sarah, who is uh, c-currently restraining our dear friend over here, heh…”

Amanda blinked. Thinking about it, she _did_ vaguely remember Sarah--it wasn’t exactly hard to forget someone who was that tall, after all.

She coughed and adjusted her posture. No fooling around, it was time to be in-character. “Do you require my help with anything?” she asked, slipping back into Diana’s voice.

“The only thing,” Chloe interrupted, “we need from an English  _ branleur _ such as yourself is a swift kick in the--SARAH, GET OFF, WILL YOU!”

“Chloe, I swear to the Nines, you  _ will _ be the death of me,” Sarah grumbled, her arms wrapped around Chloe in an awkward hold. Her limbs were like steel noodles —the more the Chloe struggled ,  the tighter Sarah’s grip became.

Elfriede sighed. “Yes, please help.”

Amanda looked at Chloe, confused. She hadn’t seen a girl  _ this _ worked up over Diana since…

“Um…Elfriede, yes?” Amanda whispered. “Why is your friend over there so up in arms  over  me?”

“That’s what I wanted to bring you here for, Fräulein Cavendish,” Elfriede replied. “Chloe has some…personality issues, I suppose you could say. Which makes swallowing her pride with regard to this current situation all the more…difficult…”

“And what do you need me for, exactly?”

“Chloe needs help with a musical spell. A simple one, really.”

Amanda sighed. Today was not her day. But… maybe  for a bit, she could suck it up. It was a simple spell, right?

“Chloe, is it?” Amanda suddenly spoke up, walking over to the flailing mess of a girl. “I do apologize for my comment. Quite unbecoming of me. It’s not been a good day for me, you see—I shouldn’t have been so…ribald?”

_ Is that even a word? _

Slowly, Sarah released her grip on Chloe. The enraged French girl seemed to be calming down, but she still shot Amanda a rather terse glare,  holding it  for a few seconds before finally turning in the opposite direction.

“Let’s just go to the room…” the French girl grumbled, crossing her arms.

Amanda blinked in confusion.

_ Well, this day just got more…interesting. _

Chloe’s group  led Amanda to a room that she’d never been in before. It was fairly spacious, covered in soundproofing foam. Inside were  several  musical instruments—a few violins, some woodwinds and brass, two cellos, and  attracting the most attention,  a piano. Positioned right at the end of the room, it was  obviously  aged, with dusty reddish-brown wood on its surface, and a yellowish tint to the ivories. It didn’t take long for Amanda to figure out where this was going.

“So…it’s just a music spell?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah, Chloe’s taking an elective this year,” Sarah replied. “Part of the assignment involves playing an entire song using a spell to manipulate an instrument. Chloe chose a piano…”

“It’s not even fair!” Chloe whined, kicking at the keyboard. “I’ve been playing this damned thing since I came out of the womb, and I can’t even use a spell to play it!”

“Well, different circumstances and all that…” Sarah wearily said.

Chloe laid her head against the piano, letting out an exhausted groan. “I’m a mess…”

Elfriede walked over to her friend, giving her a sympathetic pat on the back. “Now now, you managed to ask for help, Chloe! I’m sure Fraulein Diana would be more than happy to show you how to do it. And, well, if not that…”

“Elfriede, we are  _ not _ bringing in one of your Nightfall OC’s to help her,” Sarah sighed.

Elfriede blushed. “H-How dare you, Sarah! Sir Elton Brooker of Joelstein WILL be real once I get that spell working, mark my words!”

Amanda blinked.

_ Okay, so, Elfriede here is…kind of creepy… _

Elfriede sighed and turned back to Amanda, not saying a word. Her eyes looked like they were just pleading for help. It was a rare look that Amanda didn’t see enough from her own friends...well, beyond Akko and Lotte. But what felt even weirder was the odd feeling welling up in her chest from looking at Elfriede. An odd feeling accentuated by this particularly odd circumstance.

Someone needed her  _ help _ .

She took in a deep breath.

_ …Cavendish, you owe me for this one. _

“Chloe, why don’t you show me the spell?”

“Why, so you can rub my failure in, Cavendish?” Chloe hissed.

Amanda’s eye twitched. Staying in-character  here  was  _ very _ hard.

“No,  aheh …just so I can give you advice on what you might be doing wrong!” she replied, her voice cracking from the bile currently building up in her throat. It was getting harder to maintain an accent around this girl.

“Uh, Diana? You feelin’ okay?” Sarah asked.

“Peachy!” Amanda shot back.

Chloe took in a breath through her nose. She  then  stood up and grabbed her wand, pointing it at the piano.

“Musica praestare!” she exclaimed. Immediately, a bolt of magic hit the piano. Chloe held her wand straight and grimaced. The piano stayed silent until the deepest keys suddenly sounded off in a cacophonous, out of tune groan. Frustrated, Chloe tossed her wand against it, hitting a  C# .

“Merde!” she hissed. Elfriede immediately retrieved her friend’s wand.

“You see my shame now, Cavendish? I’m sure you’ll just rub in how much easier this comes to you!” Chloe ranted, stomping her heel.

Amanda took a look at the piano. She wasn’t too musically inclined, but she’d picked up a few things over the years. Nothing  _ exceptional _ , of course, but if she was going to fill Diana’s role as the know-it-all, she actually  _ had _ to know it all.

_ …well, improvising has always been a talent of mine. _

Suddenly, an idea.

_ Now, there was that lockpicking spell I picked up back home, where you have to imagine all the tumblers.  _ _ Shot in the dark here, but what if… _

“I’m not going to rub anything in,” Amanda suddenly chirped, pulling her wand out. “It seems your issue here is that you’re not focusing your fingers properly.”

“…my what?” Chloe asked.

“Your fingers, dear!” Amanda replied. “You need to  _ feel _ the keys when you’re casting it! Let it flow through the wand and bounce against the piano!”

Chloe blinked. Amanda hoped this  all  sounded right. All of this was just her rattling whatever came to mind at the moment.  She had no idea if playing a piano was anything like picking a lock.

“Chloe?” Sarah asked.

“I…I can try that, I suppose…” Chloe sighed. She stood up and pulled her wand back out. Taking in a breath, she flexed her fingers. She  looked to the piano. She glanced at each and every key, the sounds pinging through her head like an echo.

“Musica praestare!” she exclaimed.

Suddenly, another bolt of magic hit the piano. One key sounded off first. The next one came a second later. Slowly, two played right next to each other. And then, as Chloe held her wand at the piano, her arm trembling with anxiety, a melody began playing.

Sarah and Elfriede gasped. They didn’t think it’d be  _ this _ quick before Chloe had gotten it together. Both of them suddenly smiled and began shaking Amanda’s hand, throwing her off guard.

“By the Nines, she’s got it!” Elfriede exclaimed. “Diana, thank you so much!”

“You’re amazing, Diana!” Sarah added.

“H-Hey, hey, easy!” Amanda responded, accent slipping again. She felt an odd feeling in her stomach, something she hadn’t really felt much of before.

“Chloe, think you can take it from here?” Sarah asked. “We’ve got class in a few minutes.”

Chloe stared off. “I’ll catch up with you in a moment, girls.”

“Do be quick, Chloe!” Elfriede chirped, walking out of the room alongside Sarah.

Amanda looked over at Chloe for a moment. She was still standing in front of the piano, watching it go. The fingers on her left hand tapped  against  her leg, bouncing to each note. As Amanda got closer, she could hear Chloe singing something under her breath.

“ _ Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot _

_ Prête-moi ta plume, pour écrire un mot _

_ Ma chandelle est morte, je n’ai plus de feu _

_ Ouvre-moi ta porte, pour l’amour de dieu.” _

“What song is that?” Amanda asked. Immediately, the piano stopped playing, Chloe’s face turning white as a sheet.

“N-Nothing…” she replied. “Just…a bedtime song, I suppose you could call it. Always makes me think of home.”

The piano suddenly began playing again. Amanda stood beside Chloe and listened to her play it some more.

_ She has a nice voice…shit,  _ _ does every jerk at this stupid school have a sweet side _ _? Reminds me of…wait… _

A certain English redhead crossed Amanda’s mind. Damn these intrusive thoughts. To cover them, she loudly coughed. “Er, Chloe, you have class soon, yes?”

The piano stopped playing as Chloe whisked her wand back into her pocket. “Don’t talk down to me, Cavendish!” she huffed, beginning to walk out of the room.

Suddenly, she stopped. Turning to Amanda, she took in a breath.

“Thank you for your help.”

Without saying another word, she walked out. Amanda stood there for another second, and then turned to the piano.

_ …I helped somebody. _

Amanda didn’t care that people thought she was a jerk. She had cultivated  her rebellious image for years, and it hadn’t exactly  _ lost _ her too many friends. She had Akko, Jasminka, Constanze, she had plenty of people she hung out with who all looked up to her in some way. Well, maybe not looked  _ up _ , but they still saw her as someone worth their time.

But this was different. Something about this felt different to her. She couldn’t put her finger on how it felt different, but she knew it felt different.

_ I mean… _ HELPING  _ people!  _ she thought to herself.  _ When was the last time I ever helped people? I steal stuff from them and shit--that’s like the opposite of helping!  _ _ Okay, like, I guess I “help” Akko with stuff, sometimes, but like…this isn’t that, is it? Like…this is HELP help, not…why am I getting so worked up over this? _

“Miss Cavendish?”

Amanda turned around with a start. She knew that voice.

“P-Professor Babock!” she squeaked out. “Was just helping a student with a spell for class.”

Babcock stepped into the room, arms behind her back, her expression stern as ever. “I see. I just thought I’d remind you that you have patrol duty tonight. You’re prepared to make your rounds, yes?”

_ Shit. _

Amanda  had  almost forgot ten . Diana usually patrolled the halls on some nights.

“Er…yes, I should be,” she nodded.

Babcock gave a faint smile. “Good, good. That’s all I had to say. You have a good day, I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

As she left the room, Amanda just stood there.

_ I am not gonna get  _ _ any  _ _ sleep tonight, huh? _

* * *

“ You know, I’m convinced Sucy isn’t even human.”

Barbara turned to her friend as they walked through the hallway, watching Hannah (once again) struggling with the issue of her unwanted body’s teeth problems. The canines that Hannah had inherited from Sucy had once again scratched at her bottom lip, and she was dabbing the cut with a napkin.

“ I think she  just has some…weird biology?” Barbara awkwardly suggested. “Plenty of people have that. I mean,  _ your _ body has some pretty sharp teeth  too .”

Hannah scoffed. “Babs, there’s an entire world of difference between my teeth and Sucy’s. I don’t even know how she  _ eats _ with these things.”

“You wanna ask her?”

“ You’re kidding, right?  Talking to her is like banging your head against a wall. I tried last night and she either grunted or said something to try and get my goat. I asked her about  her favorite food , and all she said was ‘You don’t have the spice palette to handle it’. I mean, the  _ nerve _ ! I honestly wonder how Akko puts up with her.”

Barbara shook her head.  They had only  had  two nights together, and t hings were already tense between Sucy and Hannah.  Barbara had hoped that she could smooth things over, but she couldn’t seem to get on Sucy’s good side either.

“I dunno, I…well, I suppose you  could call me an optimist. If Sucy could manage to be friendly towards  _ Akko _ , she could be nice to us…eventually…”

“Yeah, sure, when we’re dead and she’s the one burying us,” Hannah snarked.  “And have you seen the way she treats Akko? If that’s ‘being friendly,’ I don’t–”

Suddenly, without warning, a hand appeared and grabbed Barbara’s wrist. Before she had time to react, she found herself staring at…her own face?

Right, Constanze. The German witch tapped on her notepad, the words " _ Help me _ " written and underlined. She seemed uncomfortable, knees buckled together and hands trembling lightly.

“E-Excuse you!” Barbara exclaimed. “At least give a tap on the shoulder if it’s that important!”

Hannah arched a confused eyebrow. “…how did you even get here without us noticing?”

Constanze tapped the wall behind them in reply.

“Ah, say no more,” Hannah said.

“ _ Anyways _ ,” Barbara grumbled, “Constanze, what’s so important that you need to talk to me?”

Constanze suddenly revealed a notebook in her hand. She took a pencil out from behind her ear and began writing in it.  When she was done, she turned the page to Barbara’s direction.

" _ I've decided to do something new. Apparently I have a conscience. _ "

"'Apparently', huh," Hannah snarkily replied.

"Constanze…", Barbara added, "it would be  _ very  _ beneficial to us if you could, um…y'know, explain this to us easier. You're not making much sense."

Constanze gave a pathetic growl, her fingers tightening their grip on her pen. She scribbled again, then showed it to Barbara.

“ _ Avery talked to me. She wants to do lunch. _ ”

Barbara blinked, her cheeks suddenly flushing. “Avery  _ talked _ to you?”

“ _ Our _ Avery?” Hannah asked.

Constanze nodded.

“And you…talked back?” Barbara asked, her voice sounding a tiny bit more anxious.

Constanze nodded again. She scribbled down more words.

“ _ You have no idea how painful it is to talk to people when you hate both talking AND people. _ ”

“Well, I suppose you’re not wrong,” Barbara said. “But…so you know she’s my cousin,  right ?”

" _ She said you don't talk anymore and she seemed sad. _ "

Barbara have only a faint "Oh" in reply.

“You don't talk to her, Barbara?” Hannah asked.

Barbara hesitated. “I mean…not really, no.”

“Why not?”

Barbara sighed. “I’d really rather not go into this right now, Hannah.”

Hannah groaned, crossing her arms. “Great, more family drama in the Parker clan.”

A loud cough interrupted their conversation. Constanze glared at them again, before her pencil went back to her notepad.

“ _ I want to follow through and set up a social engagement with her. Help me deal with this. _ ”

"Deal with it how?” asked Barbara.

Constanze hesitated to write on the notepad this time. Her eyes fell to the floor.

“Constanze?” Barbara repeated. “You alright?”

Constanze scribbled again. She looked at Barbara with a pleading expression on her face. At that moment, the typical deadpan grimace of the German witch left, replaced by something different. A scared gaze like a child lost in a supermarket.

_ “She was very sad. I don’t want to see her upset. Can you help me set something up?” _

Barbara paused. She hadn’t talked to Avery in a good long while, certainly. She didn’t talk about why. She didn’t  _ want _ to think about why. But that look…that damned look…

_ Is that what I look like when I’m scared? _ she thought. Being on the other end of this was an oddly melancholic experience.

An idea struck her mind. One that was quite risky. She had been pretending to be Lotte this whole time, true, but she hadn’t had to hold an extended conversation while pretending to be her. But…if Constanze legitimately couldn’t handle this…

“Do you want me there with you?"

Constanze nodded.

"Well…I suppose  I could… ”  Barbara said, her hand moving to where Lotte’s glasses touched the bridge of her nose. She still had many, many odd feelings about being in this body. Feelings she didn’t want to deal with right now. Another thing to add to the pile of “Things Barbara Parker did not want to put up with right now.”

“I’m just unsure… ”

"Wait, is that a good idea?” asked Hannah. “What if she’s upset that you’ve been hanging out with people other than her?”

Barbara shook her head. “With as much as we follow Diana around, Avery’s bound to know that already.”

“I guess you aren’t wrong…” Hannah replied. “But…is something else up?”

Barbara didn’t respond for a moment. “I’ll…I’ll tell you another time.”

Constanze looked Barbara over. Quiet as she may have been, she was very  good at observing others. She knew body language well--the nervous wringing of hands, the legs buckled tightly like sticks in a bundle, the refusal to make eye contact. Almost exactly like Lotte, without even thinking.

She tapped her notepad again. The words “ _ Don’t push her _ ” were written down, underlined thrice.

Hannah sighed, shaking her head. “Right, right…sorry.”

“Look, let’s not worry about it right now,” said Barbara. “Let’s you and I go to Akko’s dorm. I brought my phone in there after the body switch; I can maybe text her for you, set it up?”

Constanze nodded. Suddenly, she wrote more down on her notepad.

“ _ Thank you. _ ”

Barbara blushed. “Erm…d-don’t mention it.  Or anything, really!”

Hannah arched a suspicious eyebrow. “I’m genuinely surprised you’re the one instigating this, Constanze. You’ve hardly been the type to enjoy socializing.”

Constanze grimaced and wrote on her notepad once more.

_ “She looked sad. I want to be nice and do this as soon as possible.” _

Hannah smirked. “Seems I’ve underestimated your penchant for generosity. Sure Akko hasn’t rubbed off on you a tad?”

Constanze didn’t smirk back. Instead, she wrote once again.

_ “This is only a one-time thing. I still hate most people.” _

“ Heh ,” Hannah replied, a teasing tone in her voice. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Now then, shall we go to the room?” Barbara asked, cutting them off. “Let’s set it for Thursday, that way I can help you, um...practice being me!”

Constanze’s eyes went wide.

_ Scheisse. I’m regretting this. _

“Well,” Hannah began, “if you two are going to be preoccupied, I’m going to go out. Maybe buy something to file these teeth down.”

“Be back for dinner, Han!” Barbara said, smiling at her friend.

“I’ll try my best,” Hannah smiled. She gave Barbara’s shoulder a pat before turning around and walking off. Constanze eyed her for a brief moment before turning back to Barbara. The two then began to walk to Akko’s dorm. And yet, despite herself, Barbara couldn’t help but  get  lost in thought. Something was still weighing on her mind.

_ Avery…I’m sorry… _

* * *

“So then, it’s agreed?” Diana said. “We all need to keep a close eye on Amanda and make sure she doesn’t do anything rash.”

Jasminka nodded. “She’s impulsive, yeah. But she’s never been this quiet around me and Conz before…really has me worried…”

“I mean, it’s Amanda,” said Sucy. “ She’s worrying in general.”

“Sucy!” Lotte exclaimed, almost perfectly timed. 

“What, am I wrong?”

“Well-”

“Am I  _ wrong _ , Lotte?”

Perhaps wisely, Lotte chose not to respond.

“Well,  if she  _ does _ try to run off and get the necklace , we’ll be there to stop her!” exclaimed Akko. “And I know just what to do! Lotte, you go find Amanda and tell her that I’m going to sing a four hour love ballad for Hannah where the whole school can hear me, and  _ then _ -”

“At the risk of preventing what may well be a masterpiece  of musical theater ,” Diana said as she gently placed a hand on Akko’s arm, “perhaps we ought to come up with a plan that  _ doesn’t  _ involve horrendously embarrassing Amanda?”

“Aww…” Akko whined. “But I came up with a whole super complicated plan and everything! With lots of sneaking around and subterfuge and disguising and stuff!”

“That’d be the first  time  you had a complicated thought,” Sucy snarked.

“ Sucy!”

“Tell me that I am wrong, Lotte.”

“You-!”

“You know what?” said Akko, doing her best to stay optimistic. “I’m going to let that pass! Sucy, why don’t you give us  _ your  _ thoughts here?”

Sucy shrugged.

“Couldn’t we just drug her or something?”

A collective groan came over everyone in the room. Akko and Diana simultaneously facepalmed. Oddly, even Jasminka gave an exasperated sigh through her nose. Sucy’s response had been predictable, and yet it was still a letdown.

“ What?” Sucy said indignantly. “It would  _ work _ !”

“Please don’t drug my roommate…” Jasminka quietly said, discomforted by the suggestion.

“...in  _ my  _ body,” Diana added.

“I drug Akko all the time and nobody complained,” Sucy rebutted.

“Sucy…” Lotte sighed. “You  _ know _ what I’m gonna say.”

“Ugh…”

“No drugging,” Diana bluntly said. “Unless  _ absolutely _ necessary, no drugging Amanda. In the event she goes galavanting off, we need to go for something that won’t bring too much attention.”

“Why don’t we just talk to her?” Lotte suggested. “ Going to her as a group would work, right?”

Suddenly, silence came over the room.

“You would have an easier time diverting a river than getting Amanda to open up,” Jasminka sighed. “Trust me, I’ve tried.” This whole day had felt like an awkward whiplash to her.

“Look, I’m sure there has to be  _ something _ !” Akko exclaimed. “We can’t be hopeless here, girls! We just need t--”

“What’s going on here?” a voice suddenly piped in. Everyone turned to see Barbara and Constanze entering the room. Akko’s entire body froze up. Barbara looked not only surprised, but mildly confused by this entire conversation. She awkwardly took a step to the side, eyebrows raised and head tilted.

“Um…Hannah’s not with you?” Akko asked.

“Er, no…” Barbara awkwardly mumbled. “She’s gone off to Blytonbury.”

Another awkward silence. Akko could feel her hands twitching. Lotte shook like a leaf. Even Diana looked discomforted, awkwardly darting her eyes around.

“U-Um…so, how much did you hea--”

“Everything after Sucy’s drugging idea.”

Constanze wrote on her notepad. “ _ Context is necessary. _ ”

Akko sighed. “Well…Amanda wants to steal a necklace for Hannah and we gotta keep a watch out for it, or else Diana’s reputation is gonna be ruined!” she exclaimed.

Barbara blinked.

“…that is certainly a sentence you've just strung together.”

Behind them, Sucy let out a chortle. “Dang Parker, didn’t realize you had some good snark in you. I like it.”

“Gahhh, Sucy…” Akko whined. “You’re so mean  today !”

Diana took a deep breath. “Well Barbara…I was intending on bringing the two of you into this.  I suppose it should’ve been done under better circumstances, but nevertheless.”

“And you want me to keep it a secret from her?” Barbara asked. “From Hannah?”

“For the time being, yes,” Diana replied. “Once Ursula places us in our proper bodies, Amanda can just get the necklace on her own through whatever means  she’d like .”

“And that way, Diana won’t go to jail!” Akko added.

“…and yes, I won’t wind up in jail,” Diana hesitantly repeated.

“So what, you’re okay with Amanda commiting crimes as long as you don’t have to take the blame?” asked Sucy.

“ _ Some beasts can’t be tamed _ ,” wrote Constanze.

Barbara made her way to the ladder of Lotte’s bunk. She shook her head, thinking  everything over.

“Well…sure, I’ll help you girls out,” she finally said. "This is just quite a bit to take in."

Sucy narrowed her eyes. Something about Barbara felt off. Perhaps…

"You girls wanna talk this over later tonight?" Sucy suggested. "I think Parker needs some personal time."

Diana put her hand to her chin. "That could work. Give us some time to think about a concrete plan."

"Heh, yeah…" Akko added. "Can't exactly think on an empty stomach.  I,  uh , kinda skipped lunch. "

"Let's regroup tonight then," Jasminka suggested. "Say about 7:00?"

Everyone else nodded.

"Well, I suppose this meeting was at least  _ somewhat _ productive," Diana said, turning to Constanze. "Now, I do believe I have a class to get to?"

Constanze silently nodded.

"Alright,  this  meeting is adjourned, girls."

The girls began piling out of the room, one after another. Everyone except Barbara and Constanze. Barbara inhaled through her nose and rested her backside against the bunk. Her head wasn't all there, it seemed.

Sucy was the last one out. As she exited the dorm, she looked Barbara over. As much as she didn't like the gruesome twosome of England and Parker, she felt an odd twinge in her chest.

"Psst…hey, Conz," she whispered. Constanze's ears perked up, and the silent witch turned to her friend.

"Staying here?"

Constanze nodded.

"Alright. Keep an eye on Parker. She looks kinda down."

Constanze frowned, but took out her notepad and scribbled out," _ Will do. _ "

Sucy gave a silent chuckle and walked down the hallway. Constanze, meanwhile, turned to another page in her notepad, one she had written quite a bit on already. Layers of words already crossed out or scribbled over, crude graphite drawings and schematics everywhere. She once again began writing, only a few words being added to the page.

_ "Operation: Necklace Retrieval." _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait! With our work on Devil's Drink, this got delayed more than it should've been. There were also some issues regarding plotting and trying to figure out where to take this, but I think I've worked it out. A mutual friend of ours was able to help us with this, though, so shout out to Durazno for his edits! Anywho, I've already done some early writing for the next two chapters, so I'm hoping to get more out faster whenever I can. This is still going on, don't you guys fret!-Diana1969


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